July Sees Record Rental Price Increase as Demand for Student Lets Surges

Posted by Accommodation on 23rd August 2022 -

The past month of July has seen an unprecedented rise in rental prices.  With demand already extremely high for rental properties, and the supply of rental properties already down 26% compared to last year’s levels, July saw an incredible rise in rents across the UK, with the average rent rising from £1,050 to £1,238.

That’s an increase of 17.96% on average!

Many outlets are putting this rise down to student lets and the current demand for them, with many student tenancies with private landlords starting from 1st July each year, and with many students returning back to University having studied from home across 2020 & parts of 2021.

The influence of the student market can be seen most in regions & cities where there are popular universities and thriving student accommodation markets, such as the North West, home to large student populations in Liverpool & Manchester, which has seen a staggering 44% increase in rental prices in many areas.

Average rental prices are up from £838 to £1,213.

The next largest jump was the South West, home to Bristol & Bath - two towns with thriving student scenes & universities. The region has seen a massive rental price jump of 36%, which takes the already higher than average cost of £1,130 per month to £1,539.

While this is great news for landlords in terms of their yields, it comes as more bad news for many out there who are trying to find a rental property, but are faced with extreme competition and rapidly increasing prices in rents & the cost of living.

To put this into perspective, 3 in 4 renters recently surveyed said they are worried about the impact of the cost of living on their ability to pay their rent every month.

With the average single-tenant already used an average of 36% of their salary to cover their monthly rent expenses, how will the recent surge affect these numbers?

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