Static Buy to Let Rents Are Stuck in a Rut

Buy-to-let rents are stuck in a rut as the latest official figures show little or no movement for six months in 2019. 

Rents across the UK have stood at a 1.3% year-on-year increase since May and the latest data until the end of July echoes the theme. 

In monetary terms, the increase is equal to a 54p a month rise in rents for a property generating £500 a month over the past year - totalling a measly £6.50 rise for landlords looking at stemming rising costs following the tenant fee ban in June and the final phasing out of mortgage interest relief by April next year.

“Growth in private rental prices paid by tenants in the UK generally slowed since the beginning of 2016, driven mainly by a slowdown in London over the same period. Rental growth has started to pick up since the end of 2018, driven by strengthening growth in London,” says the latest Office for National Statistics Index of Private Housing Rental Prices for July 2019.

A poor-performing London rental market has weighed down the rest of the country, even though 0.9% growth in the year has stayed constant since May and represents the best growth figure for the capital since September 2018. 

Excluding rents in the capital, landlords have seen a 1.6% annual rent rise - and that figure has remained the same since January, too. 

Property investors in the East Midlands enjoy the highest rent rises - 2.1% yearly. 

The North East is performing even worse than London, suffering the lowest rent rise, where tenants have seen rents rise just 0.7% in the year to the end of July. 

Rents in Wales were up 1% in the year to the end of July, down from 1.1% annual growth in June.