The lettings sector has softened over the past year as the demand for urban living with shorter commutes has been replaced by more flexible locations.

That’s the verdict of property consultancy TwentyCi, which has issued its analysis of UK housing markets for 2020.

It says the lettings market has suffered from a shift for those able to join the property market rather than renting. 

New instructions and lets agreed are both down by eight per cent and completed lets have dropped by 11 per cent, it says.

Although looking at the UK as a whole without regional breakdowns, there are some useful figures in the report.

For example, it says that over 2020 there were 1,440,063 new lettings instructions – just over eight per cent down on the 2019 total.

New lets agreed also dropped by about the same percentage, to 930,852.

Price changes – in other words, reduced asking rents – were recorded in 624,412 cases, a rise of some 8.7 per cent over the full year.