London is recovering too.
Across Britain the rapid growth in average asking rents, driven by high tenant demand and low numbers of rental properties available, means that rising rents are outpacing house price increases in all but three regions – the East Midlands, South West and South East.
Wales (where rents rose 12.7 per cent in the past year), leads the way in annual asking rent growth, with Pontypool in Monmouthshire seeing the largest annual increase in asking rent of any local area, jumping 20 per cent from £562 pcm to £674 pcm.
The imbalance between high tenant demand and low rental stock is supporting asking rent rises and has led to competition between tenants for the rental properties available nearly doubling compared to the same period last year.
Total rental demand is up by 32 per cent compared to this time last year, while the number of available rental properties is 51 per cent lower. This has led to available rental properties being snapped up by tenants in just over two weeks on average.
However, the number of available rental properties is seven per cent higher than the same period in December, and Rightmove regards this as a sign of availability improving at the start of the year.
“Tenant demand continues to be really high entering the new year, meaning the imbalance between supply and demand is set to continue until more choice comes onto the market for tenants, which has led to our prediction of a further five per cent increase in average asking rents in 2022.
“Landlords understand the importance of having a good, long-term tenant, and there is a limit to what renters can afford to pay, which will prevent rents rising at the same rate we’ve seen over the past year.”
