The rental market has had a good start to the year, growing in all regions except one, new data shows.
According to the latest Your Move England & Wales Buy to Let Index, rents increased by 1% in the last 12 months, despite falling slightly between December and January.
The average property was let for £798 in the first month of 2017 compared £790 at the same point a year ago.
The rental market performed strongly across England and Wales this month with rents rising in eight of the nine regions surveyed.
The East of England was home to the fastest rising rents in with prices increasing by 6.9% in the past year to £870 per month. This region also saw the fastest growth month-on-month with rents going up 0.7%.
Prices in this area may have been buoyed by people living in London looking beyond the capital city in order to meet their housing aspirations.
Other areas to see strong growth included Wales – where prices increased by 6.5%, in the past 12 months to reach £586 – and the East Midlands, which saw a 4.5% uplift compared to a year ago.
The average property in this region – which includes major cities such as Derby, Leicester and Nottingham – now lets for £634 per calendar month.
The South West was the only area to see a fall in rents in the last year, with prices in this region dropping by 1.6% to £661. Rents did increase slightly between December and January, however.
Valerie Bannister, lettings director at Your Move, said: “The start of a new year brought renewed confidence for the rental market in England and Wales.
“Rents in nearly every region surveyed have increased compared to the same point last year.”
“Yields continue to be squeezed in most areas of England and Wales, with all regions recording lower returns than at the same point a year ago.”
Across England and Wales the typical property returned 4.6% during January, slightly down on the 4.7% recorded during the previous month. This figure is also below the 5.1% yield seen in January 2016.
London continues to have the smallest yields as properties in the capital returned 3.2% to investors in January.
