Rents on new tenancies in London fell by 1.2% in April compared to the same month a year ago, the first such fall since December 2009, the latest index data shows.
Meanwhile, UK wide rents in April were just 0.4% higher than a year ago, with the average monthly rent now standing at £904, the lowest rental price inflation figure since February 2010.
The index from HomeLet also shows that Wales, the North East of England and Scotland saw the highest levels of rental price inflation during April.
The index report says that overall the negative growth in London, along with a marginal decline in the wider South East of England region, pushed rental price inflation down across the country as a whole.
The falls mean that tenants signing up to a new tenancy last month agreed to pay an average rent of £904 a month, or £754 excluding the Greater London region. In London itself, the average rent now stands at £1,519.
The data reveals that the areas of the country where rents are rising more quickly are those that experienced less rapid rental price inflation during the first half of 2016, when prices in regions such as London, the South East and East Anglia spiked sharply. In Wales, for example, rents were 2.2% higher in April compared to the same month of last year.
‘Rents have been rising at a more modest pace across the whole of the UK in recent months, with lower levels of rental price inflation and even falling rents in areas of the country where prices were previously rising most quickly,’ said HomeLet’s chief executive officer Martin Totty.
