Newly agreed rents are continuing to rise – but at a slower pace, it has been claimed.

Meanwhile, two-thirds of tenants have said raising a deposit to buy is unaffordable.

When London is excluded, the average new rent is £749, up 3.5% on last year’s £724 per calendar month.

While this is running ahead of inflation, it is much lower than the 8.5% rise reported earlier this year.

Average new rents in London are 7.5% higher than a year ago, at £1,560 per month.

It means London rents are now over £800 more per month – or 108% higher – than the average in the rest of the UK.

Tenancy referencing service HomeLet also reports in a survey of almost 15,000 tenants, that 64% expect to continue rented for the foreseeable future.

Martin Totty, CEO of HomeLet’s parent company Barbon, said: “Our survey showed that many tenants ultimately aspire to own their own home, but that just over half of them aren’t actively saving for a deposit: 66% of those questioned said that a deposit wasn’t affordable for them.

“However, the positive news is that almost nine out of ten tenants told us they were happy with the standard of their current rented property, and the majority told us they were happy with the service provided by their landlord or letting agent.”

For the second month running, HomeLet reports that rents are rising fastest in Scotland, where new tenancies over the three months to October cost 9% more than in the same period last year.

Rents for new tenancies rose in nine out of 12 regions of the country. The exceptions were the north-west, East Anglia and Northern Ireland.