For a brief time, it looked like renters might have been given the upper hand. It doesn’t happen often, but in the wake of COVID-19, rent values started dropping across the board. Tenants were suddenly presented with the golden opportunity to sign a new tenancy agreement while prices were low and end up with a full year or two of significantly reduced rent.
But it was never going to last for long – renters rarely get the opportunity to end up on top – and, as the nation’s attention has been on football thanks to the Euros and the house sales market thanks to the end of the stamp duty holiday, the rental market has quietly regained the upper hand.
In May, the average cost of rent for a property in England was £885. The figure now stands at £932, an 8% increase in just one month. This comes after every region in England experienced price growth, with the highest being in the North East and the South West where prices rose by 11% and 10% respectively.
Demand Rises
This price rise is likely a result of increased demand. The rental market took a dive during much of the pandemic as many tenants stopped paying their rent and very few people wanted to move, fearing the process wouldn’t be safe. This drop in demand resulted in falling rent values.
Today, the opposite is true and demand is rising. This is shown by a decline in voids, days in which a rental property has no tenant.
In June, the East Midlands, Greater London, North East, North West, South East, and South West all reported a drop in voids.
The biggest drop came in the South West and North East where month on month voids dropped by 50%. The South West moved from 18 days to 8, while the North East dropped from 30 days to 13.
