Rents in Britain hit record high, data shows

Average private rents in Great Britain have climbed to record highs, prompting a call for the next government to prioritise measures to help create an extra 120,000 rental properties.

Data shows that the typical advertised rent outside London reached a record GBP1,316 a calendar month in May, the property website Rightmove said. The figure for London was GBP2,652 a month -- almost three times the GBP894 asked for in north-east England.

Rightmove said the average advertised rent outside London in May was an inflation-busting 7.0 per cent higher than a year earlier.

In the capital, meanwhile, an improvement in the balance between supply and demand meant annual rent growth has slowed from its peak of 18 per cent in 2022 to 4.0 per cent in May this year, still higher than the 2.0 per cent official consumer prices index (CPI) inflation figure for May.

Rightmove called on the next government “to accelerate housebuilding and incentivise landlords to invest in more homes for tenants” to help tackle the supply and demand imbalances and stabilise rental growth.

It said its analysis showed about 120,000 more rental properties were needed to return rent growth to “more normal levels” of about 2.0 per cent a year, based on current demand.

Rent rises have been blamed largely on demand greatly outstripping supply, exacerbated by landlords with buy-to-let mortgages trying to pass on sizeable increases in their costs caused by higher interest rates.

In many areas there were “nowhere near enough homes to satisfy the number of tenants looking to move”, Rightmove said.Scotland was the hardest hit by supply and demand imbalances, the property company said.