Belfast rents up 4%

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by Gill Montia

Fears of further falls in Northern Ireland house prices, job worries and stricter bank lending all helped push Belfast rents up by an average 4% in the second quarter of 2010.

According to online lettings specialist, Citylets, tenants in Belfast and Greater Belfast were typically paying £564 a month during the three months to end-June, against £544 in the previous quarter.

In addition, the average time taken to let a property fell to 48 days, from 57 days during the first three months of the year.

The firm’s spokesman, Dan Cookson, says: “Our analysis shows that while rents are down on last year, there are signs of recovery with improved time to lets, which bodes well for a sector which generates more than £620 million in receipts to the local economy every year.”

He adds: “It also shows that the private rented sector has held its own when compared with the dramatic falls seen in the value of house prices overall, which, according to Department of Communities and Local Government, are down 35% in NI from the peak in August 2007.”

For the UK as a whole, rents continued to increase in June, according to the LSL buy-to-let index.

The month saw a typical 1% rise, to £673, taking the annual gain to 3.2%, or £23 more than a year earlier.