The average rent paid for a property in the UK now stands at £1,217, or £772 when London is excluded, according to the latest rental sector index to be published.
Overall, the average rent for a property increased by 0.96% in the 12 months to March 2019, according to the data from Landbay. It also shows that the average rent in London now stands at £1,903, a cumulative rental growth of 9.32% since January 2012.
But there is considerable variation depending on location with London seeing annual rent growth of just 0.57% while in Edinburgh rents increased by 5.97%, by 4.28% in Nottingham and by 3.76% in Gwent.
The high growth areas are spread throughout the UK. Of the top 10 rental rises, two counties are in Scotland, three in Wales, two in the East Midlands region and three in the rest of England. Across the higher level country data, Scotland has the highest overall annual rental growth at 1.99% while Northern Ireland is growing at just 0.63%.
Scotland is something of a tale of two cities, boasting both the fastest and slowest growing locations. Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire are at the bottom with rents down by 5.59% and 4.31% respectively. Of the other eight, a further one is in Scotland, Angus with a fall of 0.83%, while the other seven are in England.
The slowest three areas of rental growth in England are Redcar and Cleveland with a fall of 1.48%, Kensington and Chelsea down 0.54% and Bracknell Forest down 0.24%.
In London, rental growth is picking up again slightly after last year’s slump. Overall annual rental growth sits at 0.57% compared with this time last year it when it was down by 0.28%.
Indeed, 17 out of 33 London boroughs saw falling rents last March but a year on, only three boroughs have recorded annual falls with Kensington and Chelsea down 0.54%, Merton down 0.17% and Enfield down 0.08%.
The lowest average rent is in Northern Ireland at £576, where rents have shown very modest long term growth while in England the average rent is £1,248.
The second highest region after London is the South East at £1,064, while lowest average rent stands at £553 in the North East – this region has seen cumulative growth of just 2.08% since January 2012.
‘Despite political and economic turmoil, the British property market has remained resilient. Rents are growing at a steady pace, and that growth is not restricted to specific regions or rental brackets,’ said John Goodall, chief executive officer of Landbay.
‘Meanwhile, house prices in England fell for the first time in seven years in the first three months of 2019. This combination is good news for first time buyers and landlords alike,’ he pointed out.
‘This period of uncertainty may in fact be the best time for individual certainty. Do your research and see whether it’s time to take the first step onto the property ladder or expand your portfolio,’ he added.
