Private rental prices paid by tenants in the UK rose by 1.8% in the 12 months to December 2021, according to the Office for National Statistics, and by 2.7% excluding London.

This is the fastest overall rise in rent since August 2016.

The East Midlands saw the highest annual growth in private rental prices of any region.

London saw the lowest, with rents falling 0.1%.

But Sarah Coles, senior personal finance analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said rents are actually rising even faster than the government figures: “Officially rents are up 1.8%, but anyone who has been battling to find an affordable rental property, or having to offer more than the advertised rent to secure somewhere knows that in reality rents are rising far faster in much of the UK,” she explained.

“The ONS figures measure all rental prices, rather than just new rents coming to the market. It means someone who locked in a deal one or two years ago will feed into these figures in exactly the same way as someone who rented yesterday. And as a result, it is understating recent rental rises.

“The HomeLet Rental Index more closely reflects new rental prices, and shows the average monthly rent is up 8.3% in a year to £1,060.”

Coles added that the number of renters is rising while the number of landlords is falling, which is pushing up rental prices even further.

She said: “These trends show no signs of slowing, so there’s going to be even more demand for the remaining rental properties in the coming year. RICs expects rent rises to average 5% over the next five years, although in some areas the rises will be even harder to manage.”