Demand from tenants

• The average number of new prospective tenants registered per branch continued to rise in March to 84, from February’s figure of 82. This is the third month in a row where the number of new prospective tenants has increased.
• Regionally, the West Midlands had the highest number of new tenants registered per branch with an average of 157. However, this number was lowest in Scotland where there was only an average of 31 new prospective tenants registered in March.

Rent prices

• The number of tenants experiencing rent increases jumped in March as three in five (60 per cent) agents saw landlords increasing rent compared to 49 per cent in February.
• This figure is also up by 20 percentage points from 30 per cent in March 2019.
• The number of tenants successfully negotiating rent reductions fell to 1.7 per cent in March, falling from two per cent. This is the lowest number recorded since October last year when the figure also stood at 1.7 per cent.

Supply of rental stock

• The number of properties managed per letting agent branch fell from 195 in February to 193 in March.
• Regionally, the West Midlands had the highest number of properties managed per letting agent branch with a figure of 260.
• However, rental stock was the lowest in London with an average of 128 properties managed per branch.

Landlords selling BTL properties

• The number of landlords selling their buy-to-let properties remained the same for the sixth month in a row, at an average of four per branch in March.
• This figure remained the same in March 2018 and March 2019.