Squeeze on tenants not ending any time soon

A leading agency says the squeeze on tenants facing high rent rises is not going to end anytime soon.

The comment - from Knight Frank research guru Tom Bill - follows news that rents rose by 5.3 per cent on average in the year to July, according to the Office for National Statistics.

High demand from tenants at the same time as landlords reducing the number of available properties is a key reason behind the rent increase.

There was a 5.5 per cent increase in rents in London, which was the only region where house prices had fallen; this was the sharpest increase in rent since comparable records began for London in 2006.

The same annual rent rise was recorded in the West Midlands as well as Yorkshire and the Humber. There were even bigger rises for tenants in Wales, where the average was up 6.5 per cent annually while in Scotland the increase was 5.7 per cent.

In Northern Ireland there was a 9.2 per cent increase in the year to May - actually below a previous peak high.

Knight Frank’s Tom Bill says: "The squeeze on tenants will not end any time soon. Landlords have left the sector in recent years due to extra red tape and tax as they became a politically expedient target for politicians.

“The unintended consequence has been more financial pain for tenants as the supply of rental property falls and rents rise. It is an imbalance compounded by the fact landlords now face higher mortgage rates.”

And Propertymark chief executive Nathan Emerson adds: “There is a huge disparity in the number of properties available to rent compared to the continuously growing number of renters looking for a home, ultimately continuing to put pressure on rent prices.

“UK governments need to urgently address the problem and look to adequately incentivise the provision of desperately needed homes rather than forcing landlords out of the private rented sector with unfair regulatory and financial hurdles.”