RICS expects UK rents to rise by around 3% over the next 12 months after its August survey recorded stronger tenant demand and a further fall in landlord instructions.
The professional body’s latest Residential Market Survey, released on 10 September, put the net balance of respondents reporting higher tenant demand at +18%, while the balance reporting more landlord instructions was -14%. A net balance of +44% expects rental prices to increase over the next three months.
As the autumn lettings market gets under way, that gap leaves landlords with a useful warning: demand may support rents, but the figures do not remove the need to price a property carefully or protect occupancy. A tight supply picture can conceal very different conditions between towns, property types and tenant budgets.
Tenant demand rises while landlord instructions fall
RICS measures the direction of travel reported by its surveyors rather than a count of every new tenancy. Its +18% reading means more respondents saw demand rise than fall over the survey period, while the -14% landlord-instructions balance means fewer respondents reported fresh rental stock.
This follows Residential Landlord’s May report on falling landlord instructions and rising rent expectations, when the instructions balance was -28%. August’s less-negative reading may suggest the supply squeeze has eased from that point, but it is still not evidence of a broad return of rental homes to the market.
The survey arrives after a difficult period for portfolio decisions. Residential Landlord recently reported that 41% of landlords had experienced a void lasting more than seven days, with average voids among those landlords running to 66 days. That is a reminder that national demand data cannot turn an incorrectly priced or poorly presented letting into an instant let.
Three per cent forecast gives landlords a cautious benchmark
RICS’s one-year expectation of roughly 3% rent growth is materially calmer than the sharp rises seen in earlier phases of the rental shortage. It points to continued upward pressure, but also to a market in which affordability is placing a clearer limit on what tenants can pay.
For landlords reviewing an existing tenancy, the report is a benchmark rather than a licence for a blanket increase. Comparable achieved rents, the condition of the home and the likely cost of a void remain central. Those bringing a property to market should also distinguish between enquiry levels and tenants able to pass referencing at the advertised rent.
Portfolio cashflow plans should therefore allow for a slower rate of rent growth than the headline numbers of recent years. A small increase that keeps a reliable tenant in place can be worth more than testing a higher asking rent and then absorbing a gap between tenancies, especially where borrowing, repairs and compliance costs are already fixed.
The underlying RICS August 2026 Residential Market Survey also retains a regional dimension, so landlords should not treat the national 3% figure as a local forecast. A landlord facing slower demand in one area may find the more relevant signal is tenant affordability, not the headline supply balance.
Opinion
The latest RICS survey points to a rental market that is still short of stock, but no longer gives landlords grounds to assume every rent rise will stick. A 3% expectation is a modest planning assumption, not a target to impose without local evidence. The better test this autumn is whether a proposed rent protects income without turning a manageable renewal into an expensive void.
