More houses needed to keep rents affordable
FAR MORE homes need to be built for rents to become dramatically more affordable and to reduce the sky-high profits of landlords, an estate agent has said today.
Rents are now 16.3 per cent higher than five years ago, according to figures released by Your Move and Reeds Rains.
Average monthly residential rent in England and Wales has grown by £107 since January 2010 to £763 in January 2015.
This amounts to annual rent hikes of three per cent per year for the last five years.
However, this represents a real terms increase of 0.6 per cent per year when adjusted for inflation over the same period.
“In real terms, rents have risen only incrementally. But any real and sustained growth in rents should offer a clear lesson,” said Adrian Gill, the director of Your Move and Reeds Rains.
“As with the purchase market, the only clear way to make rented housing dramatically more affordable is to build far more homes, far more quickly than is currently the case. And until this happens, landlords are likely to continue to earn double-digit returns on their investments.”