Rental growth speeds up following Renters’ Rights Act implementation, analysis finds
The average monthly rent across England increased by 0.6% from £1,442 to £1,451 after the Act was implemented at the start of May.
Rental growth accelerated across five of England’s nine regions following the implementation of the Renters’ Rights Act, research from Benham and Reeves found.
The average monthly rent across England increased by 0.6% from £1,442 to £1,451 after the Act was implemented at the start of May.
This matched the previous period, when average rents rose by 0.6% from £1,434 to £1,442.
The West Midlands recorded the largest acceleration, with growth rising from 0.2% before implementation to 0.8% afterwards.
Rental growth in the North West increased from 0.7% to 1.2%.
Yorkshire and the Humber and the North East both recorded growth of 0.9%, up from 0.5%.
London rents increased by 1% from £2,294 to £2,317 per month, compared with growth of 0.6% during the previous period.
Growth remained at 0.4% in the East Midlands and slowed in the East of England, South West and South East.
Southwark recorded rental growth of 1.5%, up from 0.3%, while Kensington and Chelsea moved from a 0.2% fall to a 1.1% rise.
Growth increased from 0.4% to 1.4% in Greenwich and from 0.4% to 1.2% in Ealing.
Enfield and Merton recorded the strongest growth after implementation at 1.8%.
This compared with 1% in Enfield and 1.5% in Merton during the previous period.
Marc von Grundherr, director of Benham and Reeves, said: “The Renters’ Rights Act has been one of the biggest changes to the rental sector in years and it inevitably created a degree of uncertainty amongst both landlords and tenants in the run-up to implementation.
“We saw many tenants sitting on the fence while they waited to see what the new landscape would look like, rather than committing to their next move.
“Now that implementation has happened and there is greater clarity around the rules of engagement, we’ve seen that pent-up demand start to return to the market.”
von Grundherr added: “At a national level, rental growth has remained consistent, but the fact that rents are now rising at a faster rate across more than half of England’s regions suggests that this renewed activity is already starting to make itself felt.
“For landlords, this demonstrates the continued strength of the underlying rental market.
“Tenant demand remains extremely robust and, with rental stock still limited in many areas, an increase in activity naturally creates greater competition for the homes that are available.”
He said: “London provides a particularly good example. The acceleration across the capital as a whole has been relatively measured, but in some boroughs the change has been far more pronounced as tenant activity has picked up.
“It’s still early days but what we’re currently seeing is a rental market that spent months adjusting to a substantial piece of legislation and is now getting back to business.
“For landlords who have remained committed to the sector, the fundamentals of strong tenant demand and constrained supply remain very much intact.”
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