Rents in Britain have reached record highs during the third quarter despite some increase in supply, according to a rental market tracker.
It marks the 15th consecutive quarter that average advertised rents have risen to a new record.
The price was 3.8 percent up from the previous quarter and 10 percent higher compared to the same quarter last year.
It was also the eighth consecutive quarter in which annual growth remained in double digits, although it has slowed from 13.7 percent during the second quarter and 14 percent during the first quarter.
In London, the average asking rent reached a record of £2,627 pcm, 12.1 percent higher than last year.
The average price was £3,124 in inner London and £2,264 in outer London.
Among the 11 regions in Great Britain, Scotland saw the biggest hike in average asking price, by 14.5 percent between the third quarters in 2022 and 2023, while Wales had the lowest rate of annual increase, at 5.9 percent.
Luton in Bedfordshire topped the list of price rise hotspots, with average asking rents growing by almost a quarter (23.6 percent) in the year ending September 2023, followed by Loughborough in Leicestershire (23.2 percent), Preston in Lancashire (22.4 percent), Edinburgh (21.3 percent) and Paisley (20.5 percent) in Scotland, Staines in Surrey (20.2 percent), Harlow (19.4 percent) and Grays (18.8 percent) in Essex, Slough in Berkshire (18.9 percent), and Bolton in Greater Manchester (18.6 percent).
Demand–Supply Gap Remains Wide
After the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for rental homes surged because of factors such as the need for space to work from home and population growth driven by record immigration numbers.Although the level of supply has began to recover since last year, the growth was not fast enough to fill the gap, according to Rightmove.
The number of new properties that entered the rental market was 7 percent higher than at this time last year, the biggest annual jump since November 2022.
The total supply was up by 14 percent, but it was still 35 percent below the 2019 level.
Meanwhile, demand has eased by 17 percent compared to 2022, but remained 41 percent up from the pre-pandemic level.
An average property had 25 enquiries during the third quarter, five more from May and more than triple the 2019 level of eight enquiries.
Ria Laitmer, lettings manager at Clarkes Properties in Dorset, said the gap between supply and demand is “just crazy.”
“We’re receiving mounting enquiries for each property to rent from would-be tenants, with queues of tenants arriving to open-house viewings and the majority being left disappointed as there is just not enough properties on the market to meet the demand,” she said.
Debbie Marsden, director at Marsdens Lettings in Wiltshire, also said it’s the rental market is “crazily busy.”
Ms. Marsden said agents are “having to keep up with compliance requirements” on top of the increased demand.
“Due to the fast-changing nature of legislation, it can be hard to keep up,” she said.
Rightmove’s Director of Property Science Tim Bannister said: “Record rents and far more tenants looking to move than there are homes available means it will still feel very difficult for many tenants navigating the market.
“However, there are signs that some of the pressure between supply and demand is beginning to ease, with the number of new rental properties coming to the market now at its highest level since the end of last year,” he said.
“While it is likely that there is some way to go before this filters through to rental prices, if the improving trend between supply and demand continues, we could start to see the pace of yearly rent rises slow more significantly than it has been.”
