Cost of Renting Up Again

Cost of Renting Up Again.

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) today have shown that the cost of renting in the United Kingdom has risen over 2.1% to March 2015.

London saw the sharpest rise in rental costs, up by 3.2% as ever fuelled by ever increasing demand and a lack of availability. We have seen figures published where for every property that is available in London thereof between 10 and 15 people looking to rent. This is because property prices also expensive in London that people cannot afford to buy.

Looking around the regions, the lowest rent increases in the last year were seen in the north-east you i.e. Humberside, Tyneside and Yorkshire. In these regions rents have only increased by 0.4%. Again, this reflects the fact that property prices are in those regions are more affordable and as such people are buying rather than renting.

Given that we are at election time, various political parties have made promises to build another 200,000 properties in the next Parliament. We cannot see this improving the position particularly in London given that we have seen predictions again from the Office for National Statistics where the population of London is set to expand by another 1 million people in the next five years and the population of the United Kingdom is set to expand by approximately 10 million people in the next 10 to 15 years. Building 200,000 properties is simply not enough.

Whether we like it or not rental costs in the south-east you will clearly see rise even further as demand outstrips supply and overall property prices throughout the United Kingdom will increase as the population increases but the building industry cannot meet demand.

The only solution we can see is the government will get tougher on people who own multiple properties as well as perhaps instructing the local authorities to become even more flexible when granting planning permission. The property boom will continue in the UK for yet another generation.