Rents in the East Midlands have seen higher % rises than rents in London

Back in February I looked at how Melton Mowbray’s house prices had performed over the last 12 months and I have been searching for data around the performance of rents in our area.   

The Office of National Statistics have released the Index of Private Rental Housing Prices (IPHRP) which looks at the percentage changes of rents over the last 12 months.

The Index of Private Housing Rental Prices measures the change in price of renting residential property from private landlords.  The index does not measure the change in newly advertised rental prices only, but reflects price changes for all private rental properties.

It does this by looking at the data collected by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) who use rental officers to collect the price paid for privately rented properties. 

The data is broken down into regions and its good news for East Midlands landlords.

The East Midlands have seen a greater % increase in rents over the last 12 months than London and was also higher than the average for England.   Between January 2016 and January 2017 London rents have seen an increase of 2.1%, in the East Midlands we have seen an increase  of 2.8%.   This was matched by the South West and beaten only by the East of England at 3% and South East which saw a 3.3% rise in rents.

% change in Rents from January 2016 – January 2017

The report summarised that the increase in rents was due to demand for rental property outpacing supply.   RICS (Royal Institute for Chartered Surveyors) and ARLA (Association of Residential Letting Agents) are both reporting a continued rise in tenant demand.

We are certainly seeing increased tenant demand in and around Melton Mowbray and properties are letting really quickly.   If you are considering investing in a property please give me a call or pop in to see me at our office on Burton Street for an honest opinion on rental returns.