Fewer tenants experience rent rises in October

There was some good news for the UK’s tenants recently as a new report showed fewer people who rent a home experienced an increase in their rent. But that’s not all, letting agents said there are more properties available for rent, while more tenants achieved positive results from rent negotiations.

With more people who live in the UK renting their homes, this survey from ARLA PropertyMark provides some welcome good news at a time of heightened uncertainty. It also suggests that even though landlords and agents might be asking for higher rents, tenants are more willing to discuss terms before signing a contract.

Fewer letting agents report rising rents

The latest Private Rental Sector (PRS) report from ARLA provided some interesting results. First of all, some 50% of letting agents who responded said that, on average, rents had risen. That was down from the 58% who said rents had increased in the September survey.

One reason behind this could be that agents also reported a rise in the number of properties available during October, both compared with September and a year earlier. Letting agents said there were an average of 201 rental properties managed per branch in October, up from 193 in September. That also compared favourably with 198 properties per branch in October 2018 and 182 in October 2017.

With an increase in supply, even though tenant demand is also rising, this likely encouraged landlords and agents to be less aggressive in their rent setting.

“This month’s figures show some temporary relief for tenants; however, while the number of landlords increasing rents has fallen,” said ARLA PropertyMark’s Chief Executive David Cox.

However, even though 1.6% of tenants successfully negotiated a lower weekly or monthly rent, up from 1.2% in September, that level was less than half of the October 2018 number of 3.7% and also still below the 2.5% successful tenant rent negotiations in October 2017.

“Even looking at the increase in the number of tenants negotiating rent reductions, which should be a positive thing, when comparing year-on-year it is less than half of what it stood at in 2018,” Cox said. “For far too long, successive governments of all political persuasions have passed significant amounts of complex legislation for landlords making the buy-to-let market a less attractive investment, and this coupled with Brexit uncertainty and a looming general election has left the sector strained,” he added.

Supply isn’t the only reasons behind fewer rent hikes

While the increase in the supply of rental homes has likely had a positive effect on rents – from a tenants’ point-of-view – it’s not the only reason fewer landlords and letting agents have raised rents. Brexit uncertainty is probably among the other reasons, as are the growing number of technology-driven innovations available to both landlords, letting agents and tenants.

One of them is the option to request a business-driven rent guarantor, from firms like ours, RentGuarantor.com. By offering tenants the option to secure a rent guarantor from a company, rather than a family member or close friend, it can take any embarrassment out of the equation.

This is also a positive development for landlords and letting agents, not least because by using a business as Rent Guarantor, you’re immediately removing any emotional or family issues that can arise in other arrangements.

With the UK’s financial and property technology industries both growing apace, the UK’s residential rental landscape is becoming more accessible, reliable and suitable for everyone involved.