'First drop' in house rent prices since before pandemic - but not for London
'First drop' in house rent prices since before pandemic - but not for London
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The average asking price to rent a home outside London has fallen for the first time since before the COVID pandemic, according to a property website. Rightmove credited improved levels of rental properties for the welcome shift, but declared that advertised private rents in the capital continued to tick up, for a 13th consecutive quarter, between October to December.
It reported an average sum of £2,695 per calendar month (pcm) for London, though that was only 0.1% higher than the previous quarter. The rest of Britain had an average newly advertised rent of £1,341 pcm - down 0.2%. The trend for the country as a whole is of a price slowdown following years of unprecedented growth that has resulted in successive monthly highs.
Rents are currently 4.7% up on a year earlier, the slowest rate of growth since 2021. The property website said a rising supply of rental homes to choose from was improving the balance of supply and demand, although there were typically still 10 applications being made for every rental property.
It also suggested that many tenants had shifted their focus towards the sales market due to continued steep competition for rentals and as borrowing costs were now down from cost of living crisis peaks. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player.
Rightmove's property expert Colleen Babcock said: "While new tenants are still paying more than they were at this time last year, the pace of growth continues to slow. "However, though this is the big picture of market activity, agents on the ground still tell us that the market is very hot, and some areas have improved more than others when it comes to the supply and demand balance.".
