Rent rises over-hyped

Many landlords have read the headlines about constantly rising rents.  But how much has this been over-hyped.  I know that from personal experience as a landlord in the East Midlands I've not witnessed any spectacular increases over the last 2-3 years.  In fact my most recent letting has been at a considerable discount to previous rents.

The British Property Federation has recently expressed concern over the lack of accurate official rental data may be allowing over bullish agents to present an inaccurate picture of the real situation on residential rents.  They highlight the fact that many organisations use advertised not achieved rental figures and also do not take account of the majority of tenants that are not moving.

Liz Peace, chief executive of the British Property Federation, comments:

"Some of the figures that have been bandied around trumpeting large rent increases are very misleading and do not reflect the picture across the entire country.
 

"While in some hotspots rents are rising more than average, across the country as a whole about 85% of rents are rising below CPI according to reliable VOA figures.

"For a long time we've been calling for more reliable rental figures and I welcome the UK National Statistics consultation that has just closed, which is looking to improve its statistics on residential rents, and we support the suggested switch to Valuation Office data. The larger sample size should lead to improvements in the quality of data and provide a more comprehensive picture across the whole market."

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