Rent gap narrows between London and rest of UK

HomeLet says the gap between average London rents and those in the rest of the country are beginning to narrow.

The average rent in the UK is now £899 pcm, compared to £889 at the end of January 2015 and £873 in December 2014; if Greater London rents are removed from the figure, the all-UK average is now £724, up from £707 in January.

The latest HomeLet index shows seven out of 12 regions in the UK with rent rises in the three months to February - the north east and south west of England were the highest at 3.1 per cent and 2.5 per cent price growth respectively.

Rents were static or fell over the three months in in Greater London, the West Midlands, Wales, the East Midlands and Scotland.

The rent price growth seen in London during much of 2014 now appears to be slowing. However a recent survey we conducted with London letting agents has shown that demand for private rental property remains high and still outstrips supply, with 80 per cent of agents saying there are more tenants than properties available according to Martin Totty, chief executive of Barbon Insurance Group, the parent company of HomeLet.