Aneisha Beveridge, head of analysis at Hamptons, says: “This yr we’ve seen a pointy decline in the variety of rental properties coming onto the market. Would-be tenants at the moment are confronted with considerably much less alternative, which in flip is pushing up rents. And with many landlords having a number of presents on the desk, half of traders have been in a position to enhance the lease they cost.
“Rental inventory ranges have additionally been hit with the onset of the pandemic inflicting traders to carry again. This has been compounded by emergency laws which noticed landlords having to increase a tenant’s discover interval to a minimal of six months, decreasing turnover additional.
“At the identical time, many renters who had been trying to purchase needed to put their plans on ice and proceed renting, as banks sought bigger deposits for house purchases.
“However, there are indicators that this might change. Over the final 5 months, and in an effort to beat the unique stamp responsibility deadline of the tip of March, landlord purchases began to rise, which is able to add to inventory ranges when these properties full.”
In the meantime, nevertheless, the provision scarcity means one factor – lease will increase virtually all over the place, besides London.
Since the beginning of the pandemic – March 2020 – some 300,000 fewer properties have come onto the rental market than throughout the previous 12 months.
Hamptons says that final month, the variety of rental properties available on the market fell by double digit percentages in each area other than London in contrast with the identical time final yr.
London was the one area the place there have been more properties out there to lease than in February 2020.
The South West and Wales noticed the biggest declines, with 48 per cent fewer properties out there to lease in February than the identical time final yr.
Hamptons provides that the urban-rural divide which first emerged at the beginning of the pandemic has continued to deepen.
There had been 16 per cent more properties out there to lease in cities throughout Britain in February this yr than on the identical time in 2020, whereas cities and nation places recorded falls of 28 per cent and 52 per cent respectively.
This divide was additionally evident in would-be tenant numbers which remained flat in the countryside, whereas dropping 10 per cent in cities.
The lack of rental properties available on the market has meant that up to now this yr no fewer than 50 per cent of landlords letting a property had been in a position to safe a better lease than they’d beforehand achieved, in response to the company.
This is the best proportion since 2016, with a mean enhance of £60 per thirty days.
In line with weak rental progress in the capital, fewer London landlords – simply 37 per cent had been in a position to safe greater rents, marking the bottom proportion recorded in any area.
In distinction, 62 per cent of landlords in the South West had been in a position to obtain greater rents on their properties.
