Rents rising or stable for seventh consecutive month

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by Gill Montia

FindaProperty.com is heralding a new dawn for the UK rental market.

According to the property portal’s November Index, the average rent rose by 0.1% between October and November, to £831 per calendar month.

The increase softens the annual decline to just 2.5% and marks the seventh consecutive month of stable or rising prices.

For a house, the average rent now stands at £871 or 1.7% less than a year ago, whereas flats saw rents stabilise month-on-month in November, to a typical £749 or 4.1% behind last year’s level.

While excess supply has depressed the market over the past year, the number of properties available to rent fell by 3.5% in November, having already taken a 10% tumble in October.

As a result, the number of days taken to find a tenant has fallen to 55, compared to 71 days at the beginning of the year.

FindaProperty director, Michael O’Flynn, comments: “We are now seeing a clear trend of recovery in the rental market, with stock levels declining and prices recovering.”

He adds: “This is good news for landlords but for tenants it means that the days of discounted rents, juicy incentives and plenty of high quality stock to choose from are probably drawing to a close.”

Positive news is also in the air for landlords considering expanding their portfolios, with the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) reporting that gross lending in the buy-to-let mortgage market grew in the third quarter of 2009, for the first time in two years.

The three months to the end of September saw a 10% rise in the value of new lending, to £2.1 billion, while approvals rose to 23,700, up from 21,600 in the second quarter of the year.