London is the only region where rents are lower than this time last year, though rents in the capital have risen this quarter for the first time since before the pandemic
National asking rents outside London have reached another record, hitting more than £1,000 per calendar month for the first time, according to data collected by Rightmove.
Asking rents are 2.6% higher now compared to the first quarter of 2021 and 6.2% higher than this time last year, the biggest quarterly and annual jumps ever recorded by Rightmove.
London is the only region where rents are lower than this time last year, though rents in the capital have risen this quarter for the first time since before the pandemic, increasing by 1.5% in the second quarter compared to the first quarter.
Asking rents in city centres across UK are starting to recover, with eight out of 10 of some of the biggest city centres seeing higher rents than in June 2020.
In Nottingham city centre, asking rents are up annually by 6.8%, followed by Liverpool city centre, where rents rose 3.8%.
In contrast, rents in inner London dropped 6.8%, and Edinburgh by 4.0%.
City suburbs, commuter towns and coastal locations have seen the biggest rent rises over the past year.
Rochdale, Folkestone and Farnham have all seen asking rents climb by more than 25%.
With an annual drop of 36% in the number of available rental properties, such properties are finding a tenant quicker than ever before at an average of 21 days.
Rightmove’s Quarterly Rental Trends Tracker also found that the number of prospective tenants contacting agents about properties for rent is currently 10% higher than in July 2020 across Great Britain.
Tim Bannister, director of property data, said: At the start of this year the impact that tenants leaving cities had on rents was clear to see, but with restrictions continuing to lift we’re seeing signs of the city centre comeback.
As businesses settle into a more structured balance between home and office time, we expect this to continue for the rest of the year, he said.
He said tenants across Britain are being faced with low stock and record rents in many areas, likely fuelled by some tenants signing longer leases last year and also perhaps by a rush of people who chose to move back in with family last year, who are now making plans to rent again and in many cases starting to think about their new daily commute.
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