The Index of Private Housing Rental Prices UK: February 2022, as produced by The Office of National Statistics, shows that rents are still on the rise. The headlines findings of their report are: –

• Private rental prices paid by tenants in the UK rose by 2.3% in the 12 months to February 2022, up from 2.1% in the 12 months to January 2022.
• Private rental prices grew by 2.1% in England, 1.4% in Wales and 2.6% in Scotland in the 12 months to February 2022.
• The East Midlands saw the highest annual growth in private rental prices (3.8%), while London saw the lowest (0.2%).

The UK growth of 2.3% represents the largest annual increase since December 2016.

The West Midlands region saw the fourth highest rent rise at 3.3%. Our experience over the past year certainly backs up an increase of at least as much as this. We are finding the demand for almost every rental property we are placing in the market to be particularly strong. We are also finding that far fewer tenants are giving notice to terminate their tenancies.

The supply of private rental property is just not strong enough and this might well be due to Government changes making a ‘Buy To Let’ investment a little less attractive, due to taxation changes and increasing regulation. However capital values of the properties and the rental values have increased significantly over the past couple of years and there are many happy investors out there.

If you are thinking of investing in your first, or additional, Buy To Lets and would like an initial conversation without obligation or charge, then please do contact Richard Banks or Andrea Jordan on 01299 896 968.