0:01 AM, 19th December 2024, About a month ago 3
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Private rents in the UK have risen by 9.1% in the 12 months to November – that’s up from 8.7% in October but lower than March’s record figure of 9.2%.
According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), rent rises were seen across all regions of the UK, with England seeing the largest increase at 9.3%.
Wales followed with an 8% increase, Scotland saw a 6.5% rise and Northern Ireland experienced a 9% increase.
Within England, London saw the highest rental inflation at 11.6%, while Yorkshire and The Humber had the lowest at 5.7%.
The ONS says: “Average monthly private rents vary across local authorities in England and Wales, and broad rental market areas in Scotland.
“In November 2024, the average rent was highest in Kensington and Chelsea, London (£3,520) and lowest in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland (£485).
“Excluding London, the local area with the highest average rent in November was Elmbridge, South East (£1,856).”
The ONS also reveals that the average private rent is highest for detached properties at £1,515 and lowest for flats and maisonettes on £1,288.
Also, the average private rent was highest for properties with four or more bedrooms (£2,003) and lowest for properties with one bedroom (£1,060).
The data also shows that the UK’s house prices continue to rise, with the average home now costing £292,000 – a 3.4% increase in the past year.
This marks an acceleration from the 2.8% annual growth seen in September.
England saw the largest increase in average house prices, reaching £309,000, while Wales and Scotland experienced growth of 4% and 5.5% respectively.
Nathan Emerson, Propertymark’s chief executive, said: “The lettings market continues to prove challenging to those who rent. Ultimately the sector is about to undergo one of the biggest evolutions in over 30 years with a raft of new legislation proposed that will fundamentally alter the viability for some landlords to even operate.
“It is crucial there is sensible support in situ that encourages long term investment in rental properties and that both tenants and landlords are treated with equal fairness to keep an objective oversight on a system that is increasingly coming under additional pressure to keep pace with ever increasing demand.”
Gareth Atkins, the managing director of lettings at Foxtons, said: “Rental demand was steady and persistent in 2024, even as the number of listings increased – reaching 7% higher than 2023 (year to date) by the end of November. So, although this market had more of the traditional seasonality than we’ve seen in recent years, it was still highly competitive throughout, with an average of 15 renters per new listing year to date.
“As we step into 2025, the lessons of 2024 are clear: success requires not just property, but proactive, intelligent market engagement for buyers, sellers and landlords alike.”
Sarah Coles, the head of personal finance at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Rapid rent rises will have sent renters into a cold sweat, panicking about how on earth they can afford to stretch their budget far enough to make ends meet.
“To make matters worse, it’s incredibly difficult to see when this rapid rise in rents will come to an end.
“While the latest RICS survey showed tenant demand relatively flat, the number of properties available continued to fall, so rents will keep rising. The soaring cost of rent is why private renters spend 39% of their monthly budget keeping a roof above their head – compared to those with mortgages who spend 19%.”
Ross Turrell, the commercial director at CHL Mortgages, said: “Today’s figures will provide investors with a little more festive cheer. In the face of challenging economic and political headwinds, the steady house price growth seen throughout 2024 highlights the enduring resilience of bricks-and-mortar investments in the UK.
“These figures reflect market activity during the uncertain lead-up to the Autumn Budget, so the fact that prices still grew should drive greater confidence and higher activity levels in the coming weeks.”
Beaver
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Sign Up13:54 PM, 19th December 2024, About a month ago
I saw this figure quoted on the news last night when the (not so surprising) rise in inflation was being discussed. The news report highlighted the fact that one of the costs that is rising fast isn't even included in the cost of the inflation figures, and that's rent.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6230y85k06o
Channel 4 also covered the rise in inflation.
https://www.channel4.com/news/unexpected-inflation-rises-driven-by-increase-in-household-bills#:~:text=The%20rate%20of%20inflation%20has%20gone%20up%20by,of%20England%20will%20cut%20interest%20rates%20next%20month.
Although this labour government came to power claiming that it was going to grow the economy, it is obvious to anybody with even a basic grasp of economics that Rachel Reeves' policy of raising employers' NI contributions together with Angela Rayners' proposed policy of giving new workers the same rights as people who've been on the job a long time will do exactly the opposite....these policies are likely to cause a recession as companies are forced to cut back on hiring.
As well as cutting back, companies will also have to increase salaries for people who've been in the job a long time, and they know that they must retain to shore-up the core business, rather than go for growth. The government is increasing the risk just of maintaining a business, never mind the risk of growing it.
But having to raise salaries for key workers piles even more additional costs onto companies, such as increased pension contributions: None of this will stimulate growth in the economy and these are inflationary policies.
Even Gordon Brown famously knew that as well as being dependent upon SMEs, the UK economy is also linked to the housing market. But the people who do get the raised headline salaries aren't going to be better off and able to afford their mortgages because the extra money will be going into tax. They might be able to mitigate some of the long-term damage being inflicted on their families, through salary-sacrifice pension contributions, but again, this isn't going to help them afford their mortgages because the cash isn't going to be available to them for decades.
If you had even the most basic grasp of economics and what it takes to run a business and you wanted to growth the UK economy then you just wouldn't contemplate pursuing policies like this as they are damaging to the whole UK economy, which is heavily reliant on small to medium size enterprises (SMEs) for growth, and always has been.
And with rents and housing policy: Stopping investors from offsetting their finance costs against rents, piling on additional extra costs that do not benefit tenants, waving the rent-control flag, introducing rules that have the potential effect of stopping investors getting their money back, thereby effectively penalising investors from investing in housing will also not doing anything to curb rent inflation. Policies like this only make the mismatch between demand for housing and supply worse, especially if the government fails to control population increases through effective immigration control.
The only way that you would pursue policies like this is if you were:
(a) Not economically competent, had little or no understanding of running a business and were not prepared to listen.
(b) So cynical that you were prepared to tell the electorate that you were growing the economy, whilst simultaneously pursuing policies that penalises the majority (SMEs and the people employed by the small business sector) and favouring the minority of people in the UK who work for the public sector, and the unions that represent them.
(c) Or some combination of both of the above.
The SNP has already proven in Scotland that rent controls lead to rent increases. That's because even just a few years ago agents used to advise small landlords to hold rents down a bit to reduce the risk of void periods. But if someone raises the prospect of rent controls then this is bad advice and the only good advice that anybody can give to a landlord is to raise rents for all new lets as high as possible, just in case somebody imposes a cap on rent increases later.
At some point somebody needs to join the dots for tenants and the organisations claiming to represent them and help them to understand that they are the victims of bad policy. The odd bad landlord with mouldy, badly-maintained houses exists in the PRS and in social housing; but they are the MINORITY. Bad housing policy that results in inflationary rent increases affects the MAJORITY of tenants.
Of course, it takes somebody competent and not blindly pursuing ideological dogma to understand that.
TheMaluka
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Sign Up14:35 PM, 19th December 2024, About a month ago
Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 19/12/2024 - 13:54
Chimera, Unicorns, the Tooth Fairy, Mermaids, Medusa, Griffin, Dragons, Loch Ness Monster, ". . somebody competent and not blindly pursuing ideological dogma . . "
Beaver
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Sign Up16:58 PM, 19th December 2024, About a month ago
Reply to the comment left by TheMaluka at 19/12/2024 - 14:35
I know....somebody in government is hoping for a "...happy ever after."