This article is an external press release originally published on the Landlord News website, which has now been migrated to the Just Landlords blog.
The rate of rent rises has slowed in every UK region over the last three months, according to the HomeLet Rental Index.
In the three months to August, new tenants paid an average of £992 per month, a slight increase from the £977 a month paid in the three months to July.
The study also found that in the South East, North East and North West, rent prices decreased.
Rents Rise Slowly in Every Region
The greatest drop was in the North East, where rents on new tenancies in the three months to August were an average of 2.1% lower than in the three months to July.
However, the index also shows that new tenants paid an average of 10.5% more than they did a year ago.
In Greater London, the average rent on a new tenancy is now £1,558 per month.
Overall, the average rent on new tenancies across the UK has risen by 1.6% in the three months to August, compared with an increase of 2.2% for the three months to July and June.
Apart from Wales, where rents rose by 2.5%, no region experienced growth of over 2%.
CEO of Barbon Insurance Group, Martin Totty, comments on the index: “Rents continue to run slightly ahead of house prices, with the majority of the UK still experiencing rising rents, albeit at a much slower pace than we saw in the early part of 2015.
“On an annualised basis, however, rents in most regions are still significantly higher than the same period a year ago, with only the North West reporting lower rents for new tenancies in the three months to August 2015 than for the same period last year.
“Broadly we are continuing to see a robust rental market with rent prices continuing to rise.
“This picture is consistent right across the UK with only one or two exceptions, such as East Anglia, where prices rose sharply in 2014 and early 2015 but have now slowed notably, and the South West, which continues to see annual price rises in double figures.
“We now ask ourselves: Will the next few months see the pace of rent price growth resume, or has this slowing set the tone for the rest of 2015?”1
1 http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/rent-rises-slow-in-every-uk-region/
