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Rents are rising - but by how much?

Buy to let rents are still going up, but just by how much depends on which rent tracker landlords follow.

For July, landlord insurer Homelet announced rents surged 7.6% year-on-year, while the country?s leading letting agent LSL Property Services claims the rise was just 2%.

LSL owns leading high street letting agents Your Move and Reeds Rains.

According to Homelet in the three months to July 31, 2014 ‘

  • Average rents for new tenancies were 7.6% up year-on-year
  • Average rent growth was higher than 2013 (4.6%), 2012 (2.3%) and 2011 (6.5%)
  • Average tenant incomes were 4.8% higher than 2013
  • Excluding London, the average UK rent was £723 a month ‘ up 3.3%, while average rents in London hit £1,429 a month compared to £1,295 a month a year earlier

Meanwhile, LSL released figures claiming:

  • Annual rents increased 2.0%, the fastest since
  • Rents returned to levels last seen in November 2013, standing at an average £753 a month
  • Tenant finances improved,  with 7.3% of rents in arrears, down from 7.8% in June and 8.1% last July
  • Landlords yields were down to 10.3% a year

LSL director David Newnes said: ‘The rental market is approaching its busiest period ‘ yet rent rises remain modest.

?Tenants looking to rent a new property this month still need to budget the same as they would have in November. At a time when the country is facing a serious shortage of homes, and with purchase prices rising steadily, that is an immense achievement for the private rented sector.

?Rents have tracked inflation for many years ‘ and as of July remain down 0.2% in real terms since the start of 2010. This is testament to serious improvements in the supply of new homes to let, thanks to investment by landlords. If that investment keeps flowing, and the right incentives for new landlords remain, this positive trend should continue.?

The article Rents are rising ‘ but by how much? appeared first on LandlordZONE.

Article courtesy of LandlordZONE””