SpareRoom rents not affected by tenancy fee ban

SpareRoom rents not affected by tenancy fee ban

15:52 PM, 9th October 2019, About 5 years ago 4

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SpareRoom’s Q3 2019 Rental Index ,a comprehensive overview of how the rental market is performing across the country based on nearly 300,000 room listings, reveals the cost of renting a room in the UK remains steady, up just 1% on last year to an average monthly rent of £600.

The fact that rents remain largely unchanged indicates that the recently introduced tenancy fees ban, which means landlords and agents can no longer charge fees to tenants, hasn’t resulted in rental increases for this sector.

A closer look at the UK’s towns and cities reveals Northern Ireland is the cheapest region to rent in the UK, with average rents of £352. However, when it comes to the UK’s cheapest town it’s Galashiels in Scotland with rents at £303, followed by Northern Ireland’s Bangor (£318) and Craigavon (£320). At the other end of the scale, Guernsey continues to outrank London as the most expensive place to live in the UK with rents of £796, compared to London’s average of £782.

Looking at London specifically, rents are up 4%, which matches the previous quarter. The highest rental increases are in West Central London, up 5%, closely followed by East Central, North West, South West and West, which have all increased by 4%. North Finchley (10%), Camberwell (7%) and Lee (7%) are in the top 10 postcode districts where rents have risen the most over the last year.

For Londoners on a tighter budget, East, North and South East London have seen the slowest rental increases, up just 2%, while Abbey Wood remains the cheapest area to live with average rents of £533.

Matt Hutchinson, Communications Director for SpareRoom said: “Despite repeated warnings that the tenancy fees ban would drive rents up, so far that’s not been the case. Even with July, August and September being the busiest months for new tenancies we haven’t seen a significant bump in rents. It’s still early days but, for now, tenants will be breathing a sigh of relief.”


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Dr Rosalind Beck

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9:41 AM, 10th October 2019, About 5 years ago

A fellow landlord has pointed out to me that he never charged any fees on lets in his HMOs and as I believe the vast majority of spareroom properties are individual rooms in HMOs, then this is likely to be the case for many landlords. They never charged fees and they still don't. So this may be a bit of defunct and misleading news with regard to the effect of the tenancy fees ban. It is in the sector of whole houses and flats to let that one is likely to see the rent rises.

Neil Patterson

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9:55 AM, 10th October 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Dr Rosalind Beck at 10/10/2019 - 09:41
Yes I agree completely Ros, which is why I was keen to make sure the sector the report was coming from was obvious 🙂

Will F

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9:52 AM, 12th October 2019, About 5 years ago

I thought Spareroom had stopped publishing their rental index. Can you share the link to it?

Ian Narbeth

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18:35 PM, 13th October 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Dr Rosalind Beck at 10/10/2019 - 09:41
We only ever charged a £40 check out fee which covered the time to deal with the checkout and allowed for a couple of hours for a cleaner if the room/en suite shower needed a clean. Saved arguing the toss over a few pounds. We now have to charge separately and so far tenants have accepted it. You are right that Spareroom is mainly for HMOs and the majority are not managed by agents.

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