Landlords enjoy rising rents and plummeting voids

Landlords in England are seeing rising tenant demand pushing up rents with voids plummeting by an average of 26%, Goodlord reveals.

Its rental index shows that rents grew by 1% to hit a four-month high to reflect strong renter demand.

And the proptech firm warns that landlords leaving the private rented sector is also a factor in pushing up rents and more homes need to be built to help house people.

The index shows that rents in most of England’s regions rose in February to reach an average of £1,089.

Voids are now 17 days on average, down from 23 days previously – and heading to the lowest record seen in September last year of 15 days.

‘Intense demand the rental sector’

Tom Mundy, the chief operating officer at Goodlord, said: “December and January are traditionally slightly quieter times for the lettings market and, given the intense demand the rental sector has seen over the last year, I’m not surprised to see how pace has increased during February.

“The big drop in voids is a clear reminder that housing stock is low, and tenants are moving quickly to secure properties – everything listed is getting snapped up extremely quickly.

“This is linked to the renewed increase in rental costs.”

He added: “Although we’re not at the cost averages we saw during last summer and early autumn, the price per property averages is significantly higher than this time last year.

“These trends are being intensified by a rise in landlords leaving the market, pointing to an urgent need for decision makers to incentivise landlords to stay in buy-to-let whilst ramping up house building efforts.”

Rents are still below the average seen in September 2022

Goodlord says that while rents are still below the average seen in September 2022 when prices peaked at a record of £1,249 per property, February’s figures are the highest rental average seen since October.

The biggest rent increase in February was for tenants in the North East, where rents rose by 3%.

But for landlords in both Greater London and the South West, they saw a small fall in rent prices.

The index reveals that year on year, the cost of rent is now up by 12.50%.

The biggest fall in voids

Landlords in the North West say the biggest fall in voids, from 27 days in January to just 18 days in February, which is 33%.

In the East Midlands, the fall was 31% as voids fell from 29 days to 20.

Voids also fell by more than 20% for landlords in Greater London, the North East, South East and the West Midlands.

However, landlords in the South West saw the smallest fall as voids decreased from 21 days to 19 days – a 9.5% drop.