Rents rise in most regions

Rental income appears to rise in most UK regions

If you look across England at the 8 main regions, growth in rental income was seen in 6 of them, most notably in the East Midlands and the North East, that was according to the rental index provided by Goodlord’s. Sounds good right?, well what actual income might I expect from a rental then?

As a guide to this, if we use the data captured by the ONS or Office of National Statistics, it suggests that the median monthly rent for England sat at £700 between the months of April and May 2020. London boasts the highest median at £1425 and at the other end of the scale, the North East median sat at £495. Hamptons International’s recent research also had good news to share on this point, citing that it had seen increases in rental income in some of the wealthiest locations around the UK reporting that of homes let between May and September a 1.3% increase had been seen. 

Interestingly though, their research has also shown that homes let by comparison to 2019 were down in overall volume by over 14%. Countrywide Estate Agency reported a similar trend between the same dates but showing a smaller fall of 5.3%. A fall like this could be explained by potential market nervousness, people being less inclined to financially commit as fear of redundancies rises amidst the Covid pandemic, tenants too may also not be as comfortable signing new agreements. 

So despite increasing rental incomes being seen across many regions, overall rental properties appear to be down when compared to 2019. Perhaps that is partly down to fewer properties being available for rental, starving renters of options, and then driving the rate up slightly for those currently letting in response to more demand?

It is fair to say that it is an interesting rental market place and there is plenty to consider positively about the rental market behavior in 2020.