News
Sharp decline in the number of homes to rent
Monday 21st August 2017
There has been a significant drop in the number of homes available to rent over the past 12 months, according to new figures released today.
Across the UK the new listings ‘to let’ last month sat at -9%, marking the largest decline for July since 2013.
But while figures for properties ‘to let’ fell, the volume of homes ‘let’ actually rose to sit at a robust at 3.6%, which is rather impressive given that the figures recorded in the same period last year show that properties ‘let’ sat at -5.2%.
Looking at performance across the UK, seven of the 12 regions recorded by the Property Activity Index reported a rise in properties ‘let’ but only two recorded increases in properties ‘to let’.
The findings from this month’s Agency Express Property Index suggests that while the supply of available properties has seen significant falls across the country, demand from tenants has continued to grow as many people find themselves priced out of homeownership; an attractive proposition for many buy-to-let landlords as this is likely to place upward pressure on rental values.
Here are the prominent performing regions included:
Properties ‘To Let’
North East 5.2%
East Anglia 3.4%
Properties ‘Let’
North East 25.3%
East Anglia 20.8%
West Midlands 13.6%
East Midlands 11.8%
Scotland 9.3%
South East 8.4%
Commenting on the latest report, Stephen Watson, managing director of Agency Express, said: “This month we have witnessed much slower movement throughout UK lettings market.
“While it is not unusual to have a slowdown in activity during July, we are seeing far less rental properties hitting the market compared to twelve months ago.”