Agents see rents increasing in 2017

80% of letting agents expect rental growth to increase in 2017 following the Autumn Statement's announcement on a ban of letting agency fees for tenants.

ARLA agents also report seeing a fall in rental demand in November, as the rental market slows towards Christmas. The average number of prospective tenants per ARLA branch fell to 32, down from 34 in October.

The average number of rental properties managed per ARLA branch was up, at 185, compared with 182 in October's data.

63 % of agents believe 2017 will see a fall in rental property supply as a result of additional taxes for landlords: stamp duty, capital gains tax. 

ARLA's David Cox says: 

“The number of rent hikes reported by letting agents continued to decrease in November, and it’s a shame the ban on letting agent fees will have the opposite impact on rent prices when the measure comes into force. The BTL market is becoming less attractive for investors as the ban on fees, combined with the scrapping of mortgage interest relief and the stamp duty increase on second homes push costs up for landlords. So unfortunately, regardless of the uplift we saw in supply this month, we expect to see the number of properties available to rent fall next year.”

Read ARLA's November 2016 Private Rented Sector Report

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