Rental market extremely busy but has supply shortfall

The rental market is still extremely busy, however, nearly 50,000 rental properties are needed to bring the supply of rental homes back to pre-pandemic levels says Rightmove. The number of available rental properties is 11% higher than last year, but 26% below 2019. The number of people looking for a rental home is 17% lower than last year, but 54% above 2019. The average number of enquiries each home is getting is now 13, down from 19 at this time last year, but still nearly triple the 5 in March 2019.

Inner London rent asking prices are now £3,106 per calendar month an annual change of +2.8%. Average advertised rents in Greater London are now 5.3% higher than last year, with rent growth steadily slowing since the peak of 16.1% in Q3 2022. According to the portal, average advertised rents outside of London rise to a new record of £1,291 per calendar month (pcm), though the pace of rent growth continues to slow, with average rents now 8.5% higher than last year.