Average rents in the UK have fallen year on year for the first time since the Global Financial Crisis in 2009, down 1.3%, the latest lettings index shows.
Rents also fell quarter on quarter, taking the average rent in the private rented sector to £764, according to the data from the Deposit Protection Service covering April to May 2018.
Rents have now fallen for two consecutive quarters after three quarters of low rent growth and the average rent in the second quarter of 2018 was cheaper than it has been since the third quarter of 2016.
Outside of London, the average rent during the second quarter of 2018 was £671, down 0.75% from a year earlier.
A breakdown of the figures shows that the average rent decreased in all but three regions across the UK. While Scotland, Northern Ireland and the South West all bucked the downward trend, every other region’s average rent saw a drop.
Yorkshire and the Humber recorded the largest fall in the second quarter of 2018 compared with the same quarter in 2017, down by 2.95% to £550, while London experienced the greatest value decline in average rent, down 2.73% to £1,289.
During the second quarter of 2018, the North East was the most affordable UK region in which to rent property at £527, replacing Northern Ireland in in the first quarter of the year.
‘Following almost a year of low growth, the UK rental market is now in recession in almost every part of the country. On top of this, our prediction last quarter that rents would decline year on year in the second quarter for the first time since 2009 have proven accurate,’ said Julian Foster, managing director at the DPS.
‘There are clearly long-term issues with the sector that are having a substantial effect on growth, particularly in the capital, and it’s difficult to see this negative trend ending any time soon,’ he added.
