A new market snapshot puts the average rental rise across the UK at a remarkable 18 per cent over the past year.

The website Home says a major contributor to the high UK-wide figure is the jaw-dropping rise seen across Greater London – now less than 37.1 per cent up in one year.

Within Greater London there are some even more eye-watering rises. 

The City of London is up 64 per cent, Kensington up 53 per cent, and Westminster up 43 per cent.

However, it is worth remembering that Greater London rents plummeted during the worst of the pandemic, so that stellar rise is off a low base.

Scarcity of property available to let is the main driver and this is apparent in every region of the UK, says Home.

The website says that in the sales market “unprecedented scarcity persists across all regions with the average stock total dropping around 18 per cent year-on-year.”

“Renters, lamentably, are headed for a world of pain that, quite ironically, was inevitable when the assault on BTL investment began” notes the website director, Doug Shepherd.

The Home report comes hot on the heels of the latest sentiment survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

This shows a headline net balance of 52 per cent of survey participants noting a pick-up in tenant demand in the three months to April. At the same time, landlord instructions remained low.

A net balance of 63 per cent of respondents now expect rents to rise in the coming three months, marking a fresh record high for this metric according to RICS records, which go back to 1999. 

You can see the full May Home housing market report here.