London sees steep annual rise in rents to new record high

Average rents in the UK fell in the first quarter of 2019 by 0.2% to an average of £796 a month but where up by 2.7% year on year, the latest national index shows. But in London, asking rents are soaring up by 8.2% year on year to a record £2,093 per month and in the first quarter they increased by 2.9%, according to the rental trends tracker from property portal Rightmove. The 8.2% annual growth is the highest in London since Rightmove began reporting this data in 2012 and the data also shows that the reason is that demand is outstripping supply with the number of available rental properties in the capital down by 33% compared with two years ago. Supply in the rest of the UK fell by 13%.