The respected Home website, which produces a monthly analysis of the rental and sales markets, suggests annual rental growth across Britain is now only 1.3%.
This is well below the rate of inflation, with the national figure significantly skewed because of what Home calls “the negative performance of London.” The capital’s rents are down 1.6%.
By contrast there are spectacular annual rises in some areas: in the East Midlands and Yorkshire, rental growth has been 9.2% and 7.6% respectively year-on-year.
Within the capital, the City of London followed by Hackney indicate the largest declines in asking rents with annualised falls of 17.9% and 6.7% respectively. Meanwhile, the best performers are Westminster and Wandsworth, with rents increasing by 8.9% and 8.3% respectively.
On the sales market, Home says the national average asking price rise is just 0.5% but increases have ben recorded in every English region, Scotland and Wales during February.
Home says: “The huge surge in new instructions that occurred in January seems to have been transient. Supply of new sales properties entering the market during February 2025 was no more than during February 2024 overall, although there is regional variation, with minor increases still visible in London, the South East and the South West.
“The most bullish vendors are in the West Midlands, Yorkshire and the North West, posting the largest month-on-month gains of 1.0%, 0.9% and 0.9% respectively. Yorkshire retains the position of regional property market growth leader with an impressive year-on-year gain of 5.4%. Meanwhile, the South East retains its position as the worst regional performer with an annualised gain of just 0.3%.”
Property turnover in the sales market is currently higher than any of the previous 10 years of March readings, says Home, while Typical Time on Market remains the same as in March last year.
The unsold sales stock count for England and Wales increased by just 6,000 properties during the last month, which is in line with seasonal expectations. The current total of 475,444 is relatively high and is the largest March figure since 2013.
You can see the full Home report here.
