YOUR SNAPSHOT OF THE LETTINGS AND PROPERTY MARKET FOR ALL OF FEBRUARY, FOCUSSED ON LONDON AND THE REST OF THE UK!
- The Bank of England has increased the base rate to 4%.
- Knight Frank reports supply of lettings is returning to prime London and is removing more towards a balanced level with lettings instructions up 10% annually.
- Research from Paragon Bank has reported the highest tenant demand to be in Central London, with 94% of Landlords reporting strong demand in the final quarter of 2022.
- Sirius Property Finance has calculated the size of the property sector based on growth of the PRS, predicting the UK rental market to be made up of 4,876,000 properties.
- Homeppl have released information around attempted fraud during the reference process, with 91% of fraudulent applications being to conceal their true affordability which has risen sharply over the past 2 years.
- Research from Hamptons suggests tenants are leaving London as rents rise, 4/10 tenants have chosen to leave the capital for areas in the Midlands and North of England to get more for their money.
- Data released by the Ministry of Justice shows whilst property possessions fell in Q4 of last year, the total number of evictions in England and Wales reached 5,409 during that period. Whilst the figures are still under the pre-pandemic levels of 10,000 – 11,000, they are slowly increasing.
- Estate agency, Chestertons analysed data from the last 12 months and found an improvement in the availability of rental properties. According to their research there was a 36% increase in available properties compared to January 2022. Chesterons do predict that London rents will continue to grow through 2023, however they expect them to plateau in 2024.
- A survey conducted by Landbay suggests 7 in 10 Landlords plan to raise rents in order to counter the rising mortgage rates, passing this additional cost on to tenants to ensure monthly payments aren’t missed. Within England, rents rose at an average of 4.2% in 2022 (figures provided by ONS reports).
- LonRes data shows that in the prime London letting market, rental reductions in January 2023 were the highest since 2018, presumably reflecting the increase in supply. New instructions in January were 167% higher than 4 years ago and 43% higher than last year.
- With the rise in fraudulent references, Googlord analysed over 300,000 tenancy applications and found 1 in 1,000 to be fraudulent. 54% of the fraudulent reference applications were related to payslips; often being refusal to use Open Banking, using incorrect tax codes on pay slips, missing uout key sections or forgetting to add gross pay. Goodlord also reports that the average cost of a property across England was up 8% compared to January last year.
- A survey from Paragon Bank suggests that rental arrears from the Landlords surveyed are the lowest level since 2017.
- A decline in the demand for the London rental market can be seen by comparing January 2023 to 2022 from figures released by Foxtons. According to their data, south London is the most popular region, whilst West London saw the highest increase of demand and demand was lowest in North London.
- Figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows that 61% of tenants are struggling to pay their energy bills and are suffering more than homeowners. Tenants are four times more likely to be unable to cover an unexpected expense, more likely to borrow money or use a credit card and a higher proportion of them are struggling to save.
- Online auction firm My Auction claims 38% of its current property stock is from Landlords quitting the buy to let market with some willing to sell for 25-30% less than asking in order to exit quickly.
- Property website, Home claims rents across Greater London have increased 21% year on year, despite the increase slowing, the lack of supply is still a problem. However, they believe affordability limits have been reached for those in the centre and tenants may move to outer London boroughs.