According to a report from Rightmove, the number of available rental properties is 11% up on last year, but is more than a quarter below 2019 levels.
The firm noted that the number of people looking for a rental home is 17% lower than last year, however, potential tenants are 54% above pre-pandemic figures.
Rightmove said that the number of enquiries for a rental property had reached 13, a fall from 19 this time last year, but triple the figure in March 2019.
Average rental price hits record high for 17th consecutive time
The report stated that the average advertised rent of new properties coming onto the market had hit a 17th consecutive record, with rents outside of London reaching £1,291 per calendar month.
Average rental prices outside London are 8.5% up on a year ago, which has slightly slowed from the 9.2% annual change in the prior quarter.
Within London, average advertised rents reached a new record of £2,633 per calendar month, which is £2 higher than the previous record.
Average rents in the UK are 5.3% higher than last year, which is significantly less than the peak of 16.1% annual growth in Q3 2023.
Rightmove said that the proportion of rental properties that see a fall in price is 22%, an increase from 16% this time last year and the highest since 2019, which came to 23%.
The report stated that this suggests that more landlords are having to cut their advertised rent to “meet the affordability of their local market”.
This is especially noticeable at the top of the property market, with a third of top-of-the-ladder properties seeing a reduction, which is a record for this time of year since 2012.
Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s director of property science, said: “The rental market is no longer at peak boiling point, but it remains at a very hot simmer. Looking at data across the whole market, we can see some slow improvements for tenants with more choice, and competition with other tenants slowly starting to ease.
“However, tenants may not feel the benefit of some of these improvements in their local market, as the balance between supply and demand remains so far from pre-pandemic levels. The fact that, even with some improvements to the level of supply, we are still nearly 50,000 properties behind the pre-pandemic market is a stark reminder that the industry needs more good-quality rental homes, and we need to encourage investment from landlords to provide them.”
