Rents in London rose by 0.1 per cent in the 12 months to June – it’s the first annual rental increase for the capital in 18 months, according to lender Landbay.

The average rent paid for a property in London now stands at £1,884, still 2.5 times the rest of the UK – £764 – while elsewhere in the UK, rental growth continues to slow. 

This has been the main trend throughout the first half of 2018 with UK rents rising by just 0.4 per cent in the first six months of the year, or 0.54 per cent if you exclude the capital. 

The East Midlands and East of England have been the strongest regions for rental growth so far this year, rising by 0.95 per cent and 0.7 per cent respectively, while the North East has dragged behind with rents falling by 0.08 per cent in the first half of the year.

At a county level, Nottingham and Northamptonshire saw the fastest rental increases in H1 – both just over one per cent. 

Meanwhile, at a London borough level, rents have risen in 25 of the 33 boroughs over the course of the last six months. 

Barking and Dagenham, Barnet, Brent , Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest have seen rents fall slightly since the start of the year.

“While there remains a huge degree of regional variation, the overall trend has been a slowing of rents across the UK in the first half of this year. However, much of this has been London weighing down heavily on otherwise resilient growth across the UK” explains John Goodall, chief executive and co-founder of Landbay.

“At a national perspective, despite rental growth slowing, rents continue to climb. Tenants should welcome the marginal slowdown as with a rate rise on the horizon, meaning a rise in the cost of borrowing for landlords, rents are inevitably going to go up in the coming months.”