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Buy to Let

UK rents rocket to £927 a month

Christina Hoghton
Written By:
Christina Hoghton
Posted:
Updated:
13/10/2017

The average rent agreed on a new tenancy signed last month was £927, according to the September HomeLet Rental Index, compared to £908 the same time last year.

UK rents were up 2.1% from August to September, continuing the trend seen in recent months, following a period of low rental price inflation.

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The hike in rents was seen in almost every part of the UK, with only the South-East of England recording a year-on-year fall.

The highest increases in rents were seen in Northern Ireland, where rental price inflation hit 4.3% in September, followed by the West Midlands (3.9%) and the East Midlands (3.7%).

Rents were also up in London, for the second month running, after a four-month period in which annual rental price inflation had slipped into the red. Rents in the capital were 1.9% higher last month than in September 2016, with the average tenancy agreed in London last month costing £1,593.

HomeLet’s chief executive officer, Martin Totty said: “While it is perhaps too early to conclude, this data signals the re-emergence of an upward trend in rents. It wouldn’t be surprising if landlords, seeing their own current and anticipated cost increases, seek to pass these costs on to tenants to preserve the returns from capital they have invested in residential property assets.”

“Landlords are facing a deluge of higher costs from new regulation, taxation changes on buy-to-let mortgages and the prospect of a near-term rise in interest rates. There’s also the added uncertainty over the fall-out from the government’s intention to ban letting agents from charging up-front fees to tenants.”