Rightmove has today (28/04) shared the following data on the rental market, showing that the average rent being asked outside London has reached a new record high of £1,190 per month. The data also showed that asking rent prices across Britain outside of London have been rising every quarter since the end of 2019.

Iwona Hovenko, Real Estate Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, commented: “Unfortunately for tenants, the rental supply-demand imbalance is only likely to worsen in the near-term future, as smaller private landlords exit the sector due to high taxation, interest rates and the steep costs to bring their properties to at least EPC band C in the next few years. Shortage of qualified labour and the still-high prices of materials may make that job even tougher. Moreover, the same factors are also hitting the supply of new homes.

“Meanwhile – although housing market remains relatively resilient – the ranks of renters may continue expanding due to potential buyers being priced out by the high interest rates, lower mortgage affordability, as well as squeezed disposable incomes. Some would-be buyers may have also shelved their purchase plans while waiting for house prices to fall. All of these factors may be exacerbating demand for rental housing at a time when supply is likely to shrink further.”