Third of agents seeing rent rises even at weakest time of year

Over a third of ARLA Propertymark members reported in December that rental prices have increased, according to their latest Housing Insight Report, with nearly half of members suggesting that rental prices stayed the same.  

As expected during the holiday period, tenant demand is down as the number of new prospective tenants registered per member branch reduced to 63 in December 2023 from 86 in November 2023.   

However, like with demand, available property to rent has followed downward Christmas trends with a slight reduction in the number of properties available in December when compared to November 2023. There was an average of 9 properties available to rent per member branch in December compared to 10 the previous month.   

Finally, with financial pressures mounting before Christmas, rental arrears continued to increase in December 2023 with 4.5 per cent of properties in rental arrears per member branch. This figure stood at 3.5 per cent in November 2023.    

Timothy Douglas, Head of Policy and Campaigns at  Propertymark, says: “Propertymark’s December Housing Insight Report demonstrates that the rental market is still experiencing turbulence with the cost of renting and rental arrears on the rise. That is why it is imperative that all governments across the UK do more to encourage investment in the private rental sector by reducing taxes for landlords and introduce policies that increase the number of homes to rent and bring down the cost of renting.”