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TENANT'S LOOKING TO RENT ON THE UP
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
The amount of people choosing to rent rose by nearly 20 per cent over the past three months as the current housing market deterred people from buying a property.
A survey by the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) showed that around 64 per cent of letting agents outside London said demand for rental property had outstripped the number of homes they had on their books, falling to 41 per cent within the capital.
Rents had also risen, which came as less of a surprise given the boom in demand. Average rents for a house increased by 3 per cent to during the three months to the end of August, while rents on flats jumped by 7 per cent to around £253.
At the same time, the average amount of time a property was left empty had fallen to just four weeks or less each year, while tenants were now staying in properties for around 16.7 months, rising to more than 18 months in London.
Ian Potter, ARLA head of operations, said: "This steady rise in rental growth that we see yet again, coupled to clear evidence that there is no unusual selling, proves once again that the credit crunch effect on the private rented sector exists only in the imagination.
"This is underlined by the short void periods and length of time that tenants stay in rental properties."
But ARLA also said that despite the positive outlook for the sector, investment landlords had delayed expanding their portfolios until the outlook for the housing market was clearer.