Rent Hikes have Hit a 14-Month High, Report Letting Agents

Rent hikes across the UK hit a 14-month high in June, according to the latest Private Rented Sector Report from ARLA Propertymark (the Association of Residential Letting Agents).

Rent hikes 

The number of member letting agents that saw landlords putting rent costs up for tenants rose to 31% in June – up from just 27% in May.

This is the highest level of agents reporting rent hikes since April 2016, when 31% saw increases.

Lettings law

Predominantly, letting agents would like the new Government to scrap the impending ban on letting agent fees (83%), while three quarters (73%) would also like the Government to focus on improving enforcement for rogue operators.

More than three in five (62%) want the new Government to regulate the sector, while a quarter (26%) think it should provide tax breaks to encourage longer-term tenancies.

Rental stock

The number of properties managed per letting agent branch increased marginally in June, to an average of 190 – up from 189 in May.

Year-on-year, this figure has risen by 8%. In June last year, letting agents managed just 176 properties on average.

Tenant demand 

In June, demand from tenants dropped slightly, with an average of 61 new tenants registered per branch. In April and May, agents registered 65 on average.

The Chief Executive of ARLA Propertymark, David Cox, comments on the latest report: “With the cost of living on the rise and inflationary pressures tightening, the last thing tenants need is for their rents to continue rising. However, the fact that supply looks to be rising, while demand has dropped slightly, indicates a move in the right direction for the market.

“Ultimately, to stop rent prices from increasing too much, we need to find the balance between supply and demand. While there’s still a long way to go, if the supply of rental stock continues to increase and the number of tenants searching for new properties drops off, we’ll be making headway towards achieving this.”

Landlords and agents, have you witnessed rent hikes over the past month?

Catch up with what’s going on in the sales market with NAEA Propertymark’s latest report: /homebuyers-pushing-summer-transactions/