Rents across Britain rise by just 1% year on year and unchanged in London

Rents in the private rented sector in Britain increased by 1% in the 12 months to April 2018, down from the 1.1% recorded in the previous month, the latest official figures show.

A breakdown of the figures shows that rents increased by 1% in England, by 1.3% in Wales and by 0.6% in Scotland year on year while in London rents were unchanged.

The data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), also show that growth in private rents paid by tenants has slowed down since the end of 2015 and this has been driven mainly by a slowdown in London over the last year.

Between January 2011 and April 2018, rents have now increased by 15.8%, which was strongly driven by growth in London but when London is excluded from these figures, rents increased by 12.3% over the same period.

Wales showed a broad increase in its annual growth rate between July 2016 and the end of 2017, but has fallen back slightly during 2018.

A breakdown of the figures for England shows that the largest annual rent increase was in the East Midlands at 2.8%, up from the 2.7% recorded in March 2018, followed by a rise of 2.1% in the South West, unchanged month on month, and the East of England up 1.8%, down from 1.9% in March 2018.

The lowest annual rental price increase was in London where rents were flat and down from a 0.1% in March 2018, followed by the North East with a rise of 0.1%, down from the 0.2% in March 2018.