Rents steady across the UK

Rents steady across the UK

New research from Landbay shows that the UK rental market was steady in the first quarter of 2019 – which should be encouraging news for buy to let landlords.

Overall, the average rent in the UK stands at £1,217 including London, and £772 when you discount the capital. This represents total growth of 0.96% in the year to the end of March 2019. However, it is worth noting that London’s recorded growth was just 0.57%, meaning that the figure for the rest of the UK will inevitably by higher.

This regional variation is worth noting because it is too easy to allow impressions of the outsized London market to colour and obscure regional stories which have, on the whole, been a source of great joy for property investors over the last decade.

The average rent in London alone is £1,903 according to Landbay, representing cumulative growth of 9.32% since January 2012. Compare that to cities such as Edinburgh and Nottingham which have seen half to two-thirds as much growth in just one year (5.97% and 4.28% respectively).

That is not to say that the London market is to be avoided, of course. The capital’s annual growth of 0.57% is much higher than at the same point of 2018 when an annual fall of 0.28% was reported. A year ago, more than half of London’s boroughs saw falling rents, but this year only three have recorded reductions.

Elsewhere, Northern Ireland recorded the lowest rents with an average of just £576 and modest growth. Compare that to the South East, the region with the highest rents outside London, where the average tenant pays £1,064 a month.

John Goodall, CEO at Landbay, said of the research: “Despite political and economic turmoil, the British property market has remained resilient. Rents are growing at a steady pace, and that growth is not restricted to specific regions or rental brackets.”

A popular, but incorrect, assumption is that a time of economic and political uncertainty is a bad time to do business in the property investment sector. In reality, this is far from the truth. People will always need to live somewhere regardless of what else is going on, and rents will continue to go up as long as the level of supply is low – as it currently is.

Consequently, rents are going up and landlords should meet the uncertain times confidently, do their research and find the best way to take advantage and expand their portfolios.

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