Are rents finally on the move…

It’s been a long time coming but are rents finally on the move in the North-East? We’ve found over the past few years that...

It’s been a long time coming but are rents finally on the move in the North-East?

We’ve found over the past few years that rents have held broadly steady. We believe this has mainly been due to the freeze on benefits, specifically housing benefits, and any wage increase being matched by inflation.

So what’s changed?

I think there’s a few things which have changed:

1) Austerity is coming to an end – the benefit freeze finishes in April 2020.

2) The minimum wage has been been changed to the living wage meaning low income wage increases are vastly outstripping inflation.

3) Lack of supply – due to the changes in Stamp duty (i.e. the additional charge to buy a property) there is less demand by landlords to buy and due to the changes in mortgage interest relief – landlords are beginning to sell down their portfolios. Ultimately this means there are less properties available to rent and therefore supply of property is beginning to be outstripped by demand from tenants.

So what are we finding?

On an area by area basis we’re finding rents creeping higher, especially in regard to professional tenancies. Where we got a £525 rent 2 years ago, we’re now getting £550.

So how can we help?

So far this month, we’ve had an absolute corker for new tenancies. We seem to be moving property quickly maybe due to some of the above reasons. This week though we have a few valuation slots available for properties, so if you have a property available to rent give me a call and I should be able to book you in.