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Private rental prices in Britain up by 1% year on year, latest index shows

A regional breakdown of the figures show that rental prices grew by 1% in England, by 1.4% in Scotland and by 0.2% in Wales.

Since January 2014, the annual rate of change in Wales has fallen below that of England and the Great Britain average. The annual growth rate in Scotland continues to be higher than both England and Wales.

Rental prices increased in all the English regions over the year to September 2014, with rental prices increasing the most in London with growth of 1.5%.

Private rental prices in England show three distinct periods: rental price increases from January 2006 until November 2009, rental price decreases from December 2009 to November 2010, and increasing rental prices from December 2010 onwards. Of these three periods, 2008 showed the largest rental price increases. When London is excluded, England shows a similar pattern but with slower rental price increases from around January 2011.

Rental prices excluding London grew by 0.8% in the same period. The ONS said that the difference is due to the higher inflation in rental prices experienced in London when compared to the rest of the country and its large weight in the Great Britain index. The large weight that London has in the overall index reflects its high average rental prices and its large volume of private rented property.

The Index of Private Housing Rental Prices (IPHRP) measures the change in price of renting residential property from private landlords and is currently an experimental index. The index is published as a series of price indices covering Great Britain, its constituent countries and the English regions.

IPHRP measures the change in price tenants face when renting residential property from private landlords, thereby allowing a comparison between the prices tenants are charged in the current month as opposed to the same month in the previous year.

The index does not measure the change in newly advertised rental prices only, but reflects price changes for all private rental properties.

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