Rental market booming

This year has seen continuous, strengthening growth in rental demand far beyond normal seasonal fluctuations. Landlords have experienced the strongest demand from tenants in decades, as property purchases slide in the face of the ongoing mortgage drought, according to Your Move management data and Bank of England figures, according to Tour Move.

Managing director of Your Move estate agents, David Newnes, said: “Mortgages are hard to come by and would-be buyers are flooding the rental sector. If you can’t get the finance to buy a house, you’re forced to rent.”

Lease commencements were up 12% from July 2008 alone - as thousands of would-be house buyers scrapped plans to get on the property ladder. The number of leases commencing in January to August 2008 in total is up 45% on the same period in 2007.

David Newnes continued: “We might expect the huge increases in demand for rental property to have driven up rents. But demand is being met by supply - sellers who won’t accept depressed prices put their homes up for rent instead. Tenants are benefiting from unprecedented choice as well as competitive rents.”