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Rents drop outside London for first time since 2019

Rents drop outside London for first time since 2019
Christina Hoghton
Written By:
Posted:
29/01/2025
Updated:
29/01/2025

The average advertised rent of new properties coming onto the market outside of London has fallen for the first-time since 2019, said Rightmove.

Rent of a home outside the capital is now £1,341 a month, down 0.2% compared with last quarter.

While this is a tiny fall, ‘it’s a key milestone for the market as the pace of rent growth slows’, said the property portal.

It added that rents are still 4.7% higher than this time last year, but noted this is the slowest rate of growth since 2021.

Why the slowdown?

One of reasons for slowing rent growth has been the improvement in supply of homes to rent, with the number of available rental properties now 13% higher than last year.

The number of available properties to rent has improved the most in the North East (+30%), and least in Wales (+3%), highlighting regional differences in supply improvements.

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There are also 16% fewer prospective tenants looking to move than at this time last year.

Rightmove also suggested that demand ‘may have transitioned to the sales market’, helped by lower mortgage rates and higher average wages.

Capital appreciation

Despite the drop in rents outside London, in the capital, average advertised rents in London reached another new record of £2,695 a month (pcm), a rise of 0.1% this quarter (+£1) and 2.4% annually.

Rightmove’s property expert Colleen Babcock, said: “A first quarterly drop in rents is the culmination of several months of improvement in the balance between supply and demand.

“While new tenants are still paying more than they were at this time last year, the pace of growth continues to slow. However, though this is the big picture of market activity, agents on the ground still tell us that the market is very hot, and some areas have improved more than others when it comes to the supply and demand balance.

“Our own data shows that the average rental property is still receiving 10 applications per property, which is lower than the peak, but still double the pre-pandemic norm.”