Rent prices spike to more than £1,300 a month outside London

Are you thinking about moving outside of London for cheaper rent? We hate to break it to you, but you should expect to pay an unprecedented amount for your home.

A bleak study by Rightmove has compiled the latest data on the average monthly rent for cities outside of the capital. And outside of London, it has hit a record-breaking high of £1,316.

The new record across Britain, excluding London, means that average advertised rents outside the capital are around 7% higher than a year earlier, according to Rightmove’s analysis covering the month of May.

The situation is particularly fraught in London, where the average advertised rent is £2,652 per month, which is 4% higher than a year earlier.

But in somewhat positive news, Rightmove said the pace of growth in rental prices has slowed down from its peak of 12% two years ago.

However, as anyone hunting for a rented home or who currently lives in one knows, rents remain significantly higher than the ‘more normal’ level of around 2% per year seen before the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Although it may not feel like it if you’re currently searching for your next home, Rightmove says there have also been improvements for the supply and demand for properties in London. According to the property website, there have been positive signs, which has contributed to a slowing of rental price growth. 

The same can’t be said in Scotland, where average advertised rents have grown by 8% to £1,067. 

‘We’ve been talking about the imbalance between supply and demand in the rental market for a long time now,’ says Tim Bannister, a property expert at the company. ‘It’s easy to forget that there was a time before the pandemic where rental price growth was more stable’.

The Rightmove findings arrive days before the General Election on Thursday, July 4.

Tim adds: ‘The next government should be prioritising an improvement to the planning process, an acceleration of house building, and encouraging more supply in the rental market. 

And Nathan Emerson, CEO of property professionals’ body Propertymark, said the private rental sector needs more houses to ‘stabilise rental prices’.

Nathan shares: ‘With a General Election coming this week, Propertymark would like to see the next government reform the tax system so that more investors can be persuaded to invest in the private rental sector and lower rents for tenants in the long term.’

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