High demand and properties being let out quickly has led to rents outside London rising at the fastest rate ever recorded by Rightmove, up by 8.6% on a year ago.
As tenants return to urban living, a number of cities across Great Britain have seen double digit growth in rents after a year of falls. In Bristol, Nottingham and Glasgow, rents are now more than 10% higher than pre-pandemic levels, while London has also started to recover, with rents up 2.7% on a year ago.
Rightmove’s Quarterly Rental Trends Tracker reports that total rental demand is now up by 39% compared with the same time in 2019, and up by 11% compared with a strong September last year. This demand has led to properties being snapped up at the quickest rate ever recorded, at 17 days.
Bouncing back
The available stock shortage is most pronounced in suburban and rural areas, which has led to a shift in the make-up of total available properties on Rightmove where 64% of them are now in urban locations, up from 48% pre-pandemic. Meanwhile, competition among tenants for flats is up by almost double (+95%) that of a year ago, the biggest jump of any property type, with three and four bed flats seeing the hottest competition.
Rightmove’s director of property data, Tim Bannister, says as society has opened up again, cities have not only bounced back but we are also now seeing strong rental growth, fuelled by increased tenant demand and limited available stock. He adds: “It’s still easier to secure a place in a city centre than in some of the hottest suburban and rural rental markets right now, but as more tenants boomerang back to busier locations this is likely to change.”
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