Landlords have slowed down rent hikes in August 2015, the latest monthly private rental sector (PRS) report of the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA).
Just a third of letting agents have reported increases in rents for tenants in August, down from 37 per cent in July and the lowest proportion recorded since April.
This was the first monthly decrease in the number of ARLA agents reporting rent hikes so far in the year.
There were some parts of the country, however, where tenants had to cope with more hikes. More landlords in the South West of England raised rents in August with 42 per cent of letting agents saying so. The proportion of landlords to raise rents in Wales in August (36 per cent) more than tripled from July, when just 11 per cent of agents reported increases.
London hit hardest by supply shortage
The number of properties available to rent in London continued to fall in August with only 110 properties registered per branch, compared to 117 in July.
On a nation-wide level, the number of houses available to rent last month fell to 178 registered properties per ARLA branch from 189 in July. The report also found the number of house hunters in the rental sector increased marginally in August; letting agents reported an average 36 prospective tenants registered per branch, compared to 35 in July.
David Cox, managing director of ARLA commented: “
Our findings this month are good news for the majority of tenants, as less are experiencing rent hikes. However, a third of agents are still seeing landlords pushing rents up, which reflects the sorry state of affairs in the market. With increasing pressure on the dwindling supply of housing, and the number of house-hunters growing, rent increases are unfortunately very common – as one in three tenants are experiencing. Despite the fact they have fallen this month , its likely they will go back up again over the next few months.”
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