the average rent on a newly let property fell by 0.2% year on year in July. It was the first annual decline since August 2020
Fuck all. This isn’t a win.
For sitting tenants it is a different story. Average rents on renewed tenancies continued to rise: up 4.5% year on year in July.
An increase for being a loyal customer though.
Despite the small annual decline, the average monthly rent for a new let of £1,373 remains £350 – or 34% – higher than in August 2020.
34% increase in rent since 2020?! Have wages risen by 34%?
This month, Barclays said that, typically, housing accounts for close to a third (30.8%) of renters’ take-home pay, whereas homeowners report spending just over a quarter (26.6%) of their earnings on their mortgage.
1/4 to 1/3 of your labour, just to have a roof over your head. A basic requirement of life. And unlike food, housing isn’t perishable. Many houses could be rented out for over a century by now. And each month they pull in 1/3 of someone’s labour, for what? To pay a parasitic landlord.
0.2%
This has to be the result of house prices falling due to the interest rates being high. I’d imagine once the BoE descreases the rate again this will return to increasing.
I’m going to have a wild guess too. I’m going to guess the market is so poor that BTL landlords have just given up trying to get out and are renting. Supply therefore has increased slightly, having a slight decrease in demand and therefore what rent can be asked for
Probably a whole confluence of factors… economists won’t have a settled view and are likely arguing about it rn