Office of National Statistics confirms rental slowdown
A report by the Office of National Statistics has revealed that private rental prices paid by tenants in Great Britain rose by 1.4% in the 12 months to November 2017. This is down from 1.5% in October 2017.
In England, private rental prices grew by 1.4%, Wales also saw growth of 1.4% while Scotland saw rental prices increase by 0.2% in the 12 months to November 2017.
London private rental prices grew by 0.6% over the same period - that is, 0.8 percentage points below the Great Britain 12-month growth rate.
On 15 June 2017, the National Statistician announced that pre-release access to Office for National Statistics publications would stop with effect from 1 July 2017. Ministers and other officials no longer receive access to the information prior to publication.
The Index of Private Housing Rental Prices (IPHRP) measures the change in price of renting residential property from private landlords. The index is published as a series of price indices covering Great Britain, its constituent countries and the English regions. All data presented are non-seasonally adjusted.
IPHRP measures the change in price tenants face when renting residential property from private landlords, thereby allowing a comparison between the prices tenants are charged in the current month as opposed to the same month in the previous year.
The recent report shows an overall trend of a slow-down in private rental prices across Great Britain since the end of 2015, increasing by 1.4% in the 12 months to November 2017.
For example, a property that was rented for £500 per month in November 2016, which saw its rent increase by the average rate in Great Britain, would be rented for £507 in November 2017. This national slowdown s driven mainly by the slowdown in London over the same period.
Focusing on the English regions, the largest annual rental price increases were in the East Midlands (2.7%), down from 2.9% in October 2017 (Figure 5). This was followed by the South East (2.3%), down from 2.4% in October 2017, the East of England (2.1%), unchanged from October 2017 and the South West (2.1%), also unchanged from October 2017.
The lowest annual rental price increases were in the North East (0.0%), down from 0.2% in October 2017, London (0.6%), down from 0.8% in October 2017, the North West (1.3%), unchanged from October 2017, Yorkshire and The Humber (1.6%), down from 1.7% in October 2017 and the West Midlands (1.8%), up from 1.7% in October 2017.
Meanwhile a report from the UK House Price Index showed the average price of a property in the UK in October 2017 to be £223,807, a drop of 0.5% on the previous month. Over the year to October 2017, UK house prices grew by 4.5%.
In terms of housing demand the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ (RICS) Residential Market Survey for October 2017 reported that the headline near-term price expectations series slipped to -11%, from -8% in September, and has now been negative in each of the last three months. New buyer enquiries continue to signal a softening in demand, with the net national balance remaining at -20%.
The UK Property Transaction Statistics (PDF, 824KB) showed that the number of seasonally adjusted transactions on residential properties with a value of £40,000 or greater has increased by 9.2% in the year to October 2017. Between September 2017 and October 2017, property transactions increased by 1.7%.
Average house prices in the UK have increased by 4.5% in the year to October 2017 (down from 4.8% in the year to September 2017). The main contributor came from England, where house prices increased by 4.7% over the year to October 2017.
Wales saw house prices increase by 4.5% over the last 12 months, and Scotland by 2.8%. The average price in Northern Ireland increased by 6.0% over the year to quarter 3 (July to September) 2017.
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12th December 2017
