High-end lettings agency Strutt & Parker says the take-up of new rental tenancies decreased by 5.4 per cent over 2018 as a whole compared to the full year 2017.

The fall-off appears to be accelerating, too; the fourth quarter of last year was an eye-opening 13.2 per cent down on the same period of 2017. 

However the agency’s national head of residential lettings, Kate Eales, says:”With fewer buy to let investors entering the market, along with the possible repercussions of the tenant fee ban coming into force on June 1 and driving landlord costs up, there is a chance that rental prices in London will rise over the next year.”