What's happening to National Rental Trends?
Average rents are pretty flat at the moment according to the letting agent indices LSL and Belvoir track and average around £700 per month. The Homelet index is an insurance index and shows prices were pretty steady October 2013 through to February 2014, but are showing increases of around 3.5% - above inflation.
The main indices we track monthly are Homelet, LSL and Belvoir. Belvoir and Homelet are national (ie include Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland), while LSL’s Buy to Let index covers England and Wales.
All three indices do separate out London from the rest of the UK, especially Homelet, which is good, as with any property index, London will make the figures look a lot higher than they would be normally.
Average National Rents
According to Homelet:-
“Data from the April 2014 Index shows the average cost of renting a home in Greater London reached a new high, after increasing by 9.4% versus April 2013 to £1,348 per month”
From Belvoir’s perspective:-
“The average monthly rent recorded for London in April 2014 was £1,424. Compared to April 2013 and an average rent of £1,360 per month, this equates to a rise of around 4.75%, year on year.”
LSL report:-
“London, Wales and the South East have all also seen rents rise, though more slowly. Rents are up by just 0.6% in all these regions since April 2013.”
Savills’ report:-
The rental data looks at all the different markets across London and backs up the Belvoir and LSL data:-
So overall, it looks like the price increases suggested by Homelet are much higher than any other indices, and this coupled with the Savills’ detailed market analysis and talking to local agents, does seem to confirm that the Homelet index isn’t representative, and even in London, rents are either static or slightly increasing, but less
than inflation.
