Rents fall by £1 but tenants look set to struggle

Rents fall by £1 but tenants look set to struggle

0:02 AM, 9th January 2023, About 2 years ago 2

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The rents for new tenancies in the UK fell in December for the first time in more than a year, figures reveal.

According to HomeLet, the average rent dropped 0.1% – or £1 – since November to £1,174 – though every region continues to see annual rent price growth.

Tenants in London saw rents fall 0.2% since November, to an average price of £2,007.

Average rent is 9.4% higher than last year

However, when London is excluded from the figures, the average rent is 9.4% higher than last year but remains the same as November’s figure at £977.

The highest monthly growth of 0.9% was seen in the North West, with an average rental price of £938.

And in the North East, the average price for December is 1.0% lower than in November, at £618.

Andy Halstead, the chief executive of HomeLet and Let Alliance, said: “The last month of 2022 saw the first drop in the average UK rental price for over a year – the last time was November 2021 – albeit a drop of just £1 month-on-month.

“Even in the face of a minor dip, rental prices remain historically high, including December 2022 being only the second month on record in which the average Greater London rental property has been priced higher than £2,000,”

‘Situation is offering little to ease the fears of landlords’

He adds: “The cost-of-living crisis is continuing to bite, and the current situation is offering little to ease the fears of landlords concerned about their tenants’ ability to pay their rent, an issue previously highlighted in our survey of over 1,000 landlords with Dataloft, where almost half (40%) named inability of tenants to pay their rent as their main fear for 2023.

“With this in mind, our prediction for 2023 is that rental prices will likely continue to rise, despite spiralling costs for tenants in other areas of their lives.

“Tenants struggling to pay their rent is sadly likely to become a recurring theme across the country, and in turn, this could lead to some landlords vacating an already struggling market.

“This will likely result in a continued shortage of rental properties to meet demand.”


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cashcow

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10:58 AM, 10th January 2023, About 2 years ago

I have been putting off raising rents for existing tenants till after Christmas and new year, not that there is a good time. I spoke to my agent about this for the first time in 30 years of being a landlord, who informed me that I was not alone with other private landlords also regrettably having to raise rents for longstanding tenants the first time. Some of my existing tenants having been on the same rent rates for over 8 years this could potentially be a large increase amount, but no where near the doubling/ trebling of mortgage rates that we can only offset 20% against our rents due to section 24.
The government asked for this, although I think the banks are behind the demise of the private landlords and the countries instability, they run the clueless government .

Crouchender

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17:50 PM, 10th January 2023, About 2 years ago

Again the headline data is not representative. New lets may be letting for say 15% but existing lets may get a 2-5% rise. Again you need to look at the ratio of new to existing tenancies.

Bottom line is my new lets are letting for well over double digit increases and my existing lets are accepting up to a 5% increase.

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