Is an upbeat sales market reducing rental supply?

There are various regular reports on the rental sector, some cover the UK and some cover just England and Wales. Here is a summary of the report headlines and latest data together with Kate Faulkner’s comments below to help landlords and tenants understand the implications of these reports for them:-

Report Headlines:-

Move with Us – “The average advertised cost of renting a home in Great Britain increased by 0.45% in May to £970 per month. (May 13)”

Belvoir Lettings – “Average rents across the UK for May 2013 were £2 more than May rents in 2012 for offices which have traded consistently over the last five years. (May 13)”

Homelet – “Increasing rents leave London tenants with £250 less this month. (May 13)”

Savills – “Private rented sector will continue to grow by at least 210,000 households per annum over the next three years. (Q2 13)”

ARLA – “Compared with three months ago, the average weighted rental return for houses is unchanged at 5.0% and the average weighted rental return for flats is unchanged at 5.2%. (Q2 13 [mid- March to mid-June])”

Spare Room – “Average rents for rooms are up 7% since last year, to a new high of £115.91, but comparing this month’s and last month’s indices we can see a more nuanced story emerging. (May 13)”

Kate Faulkner comments on Rental Report Headlines
“Renting remains the hot topic of political comment with landlords and letting agents regularly being lambasted for their charges and pushing up rents. So much so, there is now talk of rent control and agents not being able to charge letting fees to tenants. It’s amazing how facts and figures can be twisted to influence policy and make some noise! For example, the headline from Homelet of ‘tenants have £250 less per month’ is not to do with rises in rents, (they are in line with inflation), it’s to do with a decrease in wages – hardly the fault of landlords and letting agents!

The reality is, rents, landlords and indeed agents who belong to schemes such as NALS, typically look after their tenants well as opposed to rogue landlords and agents who don’t belong to schemes and yet tend to be featured in all the rental headlines. If rents are controlled, this is likely to push them up far faster than landlords and letting agents can do so, as they rent at a rate people can afford at the time, not just increase in line with inflation. If this had happened over recent years, tenants would be paying far higher rates now than they are! ”

Read the full  Rental Summary for June 13, including the following:-

• Regional Rental Price Variations
• Capital Growth for Landlords
• Demand for Rented Properties
• Supply of Rental Properties

What to do next? For more help, from Kate and her team, join Property Checklists for free.

• Renting by the Room
• Why join a Landlord Association
• Buy to Let
• Renting a Property
• Selling a Property

For Industry Professionals

If you are you a property professional or journalist who needs up to date, accurate, facts and figures about residential property, subscribe to our Property Information Portal.