Rental index's how realistic are their figures?

I recently came across these figures from Property Finder on city centre Manchester rents.

The figures they gave for City Centre apartments were: studio flats £576, 1 bed £603, 2 bed £806.

My initial reactions were surely these can't be right. They seem very high. I know that Manchester has reinvented itself in recent years as a cosmopolitan European metropolis but surely these rents are approaching those in the south east.

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I then compared these with figures from the Rent Index. Admittedly these figures relate to the whole of Manchester not just the city centre. The Rent Index figures indicated that average rents for a 1 bed property were £402 and for a two bed were £550. This to me seemed more compatible with a provincial UK city than the figures from Property Finder. I supposed an important difference between the Property Finder figures and those from the Rent Index are that the former uses figures from letting agents asking prices, not realised rents where as the Rent Index draws it's information from actual lettings.

What does this tell us? It suggests two things. That some letting agents are still putting property on at unrealistically high rents and that tenants are securing significant reductions on advertised rental levels. It also casts some doubt on the accuracy of rental data from sources such as Property Finder who's base data may be extensive but ultimately also inaccurate.

Any views from Manchester landlords or tenants on these rent levels would be appreciated.


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