In the third quarter of 2022, rentals outside of London rose to an unprecedented average £1,162 per calendar month. Statistics data provided by the real estate portal «Rightmove».

That is 3.2% more than the average rental price in the previous quarter of this year. This is only the third time over decades that rent prices in the UK have ever risen by 3% or more in a single quarter.

More than 357,000 rentals were included in the statistical analysis, which showed that Londoners experienced the fastest year-on-year growth, with rents up 16.1% year-on-year. Now an apartment in London can cost about £2,343 per month on average. This is the highest annual growth rate ever recorded by Rightmove. For comparison, in other regions of the UK, rent prices increased by an average of 11%.

According to Rightmove, this frenetic pace of rent increases can be attributed to a 20% increase in rental demand coupled with a nearly 10% drop in in available properties. In London, the number of residential properties on the rental market decreased by 24% compared to last year. The gap between supply and demand also means that there is more and more competition for every single apartment/house. This situation gives carte blanche to homeowners who conduct a rigorous screening of potential tenants. Which in turn can astronomically increase the cost of rent for the final tenant by the time the contract is signed.

However, Rightmove assures in its reports that it is not all that hopeless for tenants, as many UK areas are seeing an increase in available properties for rent compared to last year. This includes the South West (+19%), Yorkshire and the Humber (+12%) and Wales (+10%).

Despite this, experts see the increasing problem in the widening gap between rental property supply and demand. A significant amount of residential property needs to come to the market to balance the real estate market.

Higher mortgage rates are likely to have a domino effect on the rental market. People who planned to buy their own home are forced to rent instead. When buying a first home, monthly mortgage payments can be as high as £1,121, while renting costs 20% less (£932) for similar properties.

According to Rightmove, there has been a 71% increase in demand for ordinarily cheap studio apartments compared to last year due to tightening budgets and a desire to live in city centres.