Rent prices

• Less than a third (30 per cent) of tenants experienced rent increases in the month of December. This figure is slightly higher than the 28 per cent of agents witnessing landlords increasing rents in November, and the first time this figure has risen in four months.
• This is still seven percentage points lower than October’s figure of 37 per cent and 10 percentage points lower than September, when the figure stood at 40 per cent.

Demand from tenants

• The number of new prospective tenants fell slightly in December to an average of 64 registered per branch from an average of 65 in November.
• Year-on-year this is eight per cent higher than in December 2019 when the figure stood at 56.
• Regionally, the West Midlands had the highest number of new tenants registered per branch with an average of 87. London had the second highest figure of 73 new tenants registered per branch in December.

Supply of rental stock

• The number of properties managed per letting agent branch fell by five per cent from 214 in November to 204 in December.
• This is a decrease from December 2019, when there were 206 properties managed per branch. 

Figure 1: Number of tenants experiencing rent rises year-on-year in December

Landlords selling BTL properties

• The number of landlords selling their buy-to-let properties remained the same as November at four per branch in December. Year-on-year this is the same figure as during December 2019.