Britain’s Private Rented Sector saw an increase in rents of 1.8% over the twelve months to April 2017, data from the Office of National Statistics shows.
Rental prices across England increase by 2%, in Wales it was a 0.7% and in SCotland they remained the same, the figures published by the ONS show.
Rental price growth slows as landlords are reluctant to push them up
Wales hasn’t seen a growth rate of more than 1% since March 2012 and London’s current rate of 1.4% is well below the national average.
The data also revealed that between January 2011 and April 2017 rents have grown by 14.6% for which the report names the increasing prices of rental property in London as the main driving factor.
Once London’s growth is excluded from the data, the average rental price growth between January 2011 and April 2017 is 10.5%.
And whilst London’s strong growth has been the driving factor in the past, interests have changed in recent times.
An index report by Countrywide suggests that more buy-to-let landlords in London are now looking to invest outside the capital. In 2017, the proportion of London landlords buying somewhere else reached 50%, which is quite an increase compared to the 19% in 2011.
Last year alone, London investors bought 22,296 homes outside of the capital, which is more than the number of homes sold in Birmingham and Manchester together over the same period (21,951 units).
Furthermore, the report by Countrywide also pointed out that investors are mainly interested in investing in the North in a hunt for higher yields and lower stamp duty costs. And the data seconds this opinion as last year alone 9% of homes in the North bought by an investors went to a landlord from London. An impressive increase from the 1% in 2010.
