Residential rents now average at £950 per month across the country as they have increased by 1.1% over the last 12 months, the latest Countrywide data shows.

However, as per usual, prices vary quite widely in different regions. England’s South West experienced an increase in rental costs of 4.6% year-on-year (up to £786 per month), which indicates the biggest annual increase across the country.

UK private rented sector has more than doubled since 1990s

Countrywide’s monthly lettings index also showed that average rents rose by 2.8% in England’s East, by 2.3% in the Midlands and England’s North, by 1.4% in Scotland, by 1.1% in the South East of England and by 0.1% in Wales.

Only London saw a drop in rental costs of 0.8%.

The number of Overseas Landlords has also dropped according to the report. Whilst 12% of landlords were foreigners in 2010 the number is now down to 5%.

Again, the capital has seen the biggest decrease as overseas landlords investing in the capital have dropped from 26% in 2010 down to 11% now.

The number of Europeans owning investment property in the UK has been dropping gradually over time, more so than from any other part of the world. Whilst they made up 39% of all overseas landlords in London in 2010 this number has now dropped down to 28%.

Asian investors are now London’s biggest landlord base at 33%, followed by Europeans at 28%, North Americans at 10% and Middle Eastern at 9%.

Outside of the capital, however, Europeans are still the biggest landlord group with a total of 37%.

Supply of rental properties might be rising, but so are rents

Overseas based landlords earned, on average, 35% in rent over the last year than local landlords did and more than 50% of this income came from rental property located in London.

Johnny Morris is the research director at Countrywide and gave some more insight into the findings:

“Falls in London were off-set by higher growth across the rest of the country. The fall in the capital was driven by lower rents in the outer areas of London as the ripple effect from falling rents in central London continues.”

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