Average rents outside London over £1,300 a month

Rents have soared to record levels across Britain due to a shortage of properties.

The average rent outside London is now £1,314 a month, according to new figures by property search website Rightmove. In London, the average rent has hit £2,661 a month.

A recent survey by First Direct found that 40% of tenants have seen their rent increase in the last year.

On top of this, 62% of renters said they’d had to dip into savings to cover living expenses. A typical tenant’s essential costs now add up to £965 a month, First Direct found.

Last week, the Office for National Statistics revealed that average private rents in the UK increased by 8.6% in the 12 months to June, down slightly from 8.7% in the 12 months to May.

That’s much faster than the average wages, which only rose by 5.7% in the year up to May 2024.

Rents are rising fastest in the northeast of England and slowest in Wales – although rents there are still 4.1% higher than a year ago.

There’s a shortage of properties available to cover the number of people looking to rent. According to Rightmove’s data, there are 17 would-be tenants for every rental property that comes onto the market. While that’s down from 26 last summer, it’s twice as many as in 2019.

Compared to pre-Covid levels, the number of homes available to rent is 20% lower, while the number of tenants looking for somewhere to live is up by 22%.

Last week, the new Labour government pledged to protect renters from unfair evictions and empower them to challenge rent increases.

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