According to Rightmove’s rental tracker, average asking rents in London reached £2,567, which was 28 per cent higher than in 2019.
The report said despite rising rent prices, rental homes were being “let at speed” and landlords were still being met with “long queues of prospective tenants wanting to view and rent their property”.
The average time to find a tenant to rent a home is 17 days, which Rightmove said was the quickest since 2022.
Tenant demand is still high, and is three per cent up on last year and 42 per cent more than the same period in 2019.
The supply and demand gap has narrowed slightly, with available properties to rent up by seven per cent compared to last year. However, this is 42 per cent down on 2019 figures.
Landlord concerns
Around 47 per cent of landlords said the government’s sentiment towards the industry was a challenge, followed by 41 per cent who cited rising taxation.
A third pointed to the increasing compliance requirements and a quarter said the rising cost of buy-to-let mortgages was a concern.
Rightmove this was causing some landlords to sell up, as 16 per cent of properties currently for sale were previously on the rental market, up from 13 per cent in 2019.
A third of landlords with lower EPC-rated properties plan to sell them rather than make improvements, which is up from 20 per cent of landlords who wanted to sell last year.
Landlords are prioritising good tenants, with 57 per cent of landlords saying tenants are staying in properties for longer than 24 months.
Rightmove’s director of property science Tim Bannister said: “The number of available properties to rent continues to improve compared to last year’s record low levels providing tenants with more choice, though with a long way to go to catch up with pre-pandemic levels of stock, there will continue to be more tenants looking to move than properties for them to move to for a while yet.
“Average asking rents for new tenants have risen at a rapid pace since the pandemic reflecting the significant increase in demand, which is driven by a combination of factors including changed housing needs, such as some space to work from home.”
He continued: “Landlords are currently having to navigate a multitude of challenges, but the data suggests it remains important to build long-term relationships with good tenants, with the majority of tenants choosing to stay in their property for longer than two years.”
