Average rents drop across the UK ...

Average rents dropped in five of the eight UK regions monitored by Goodlord in July, new figures show.

The property technology firm reports that the sharpest decline was recorded in the West Midlands, which saw average monthly rents fall 1.11% from £719 in June to £711 last month. The South East, South West, London and Wales also saw average monthly rents fall.

In contrast, the North West saw a month-on-month increase of 1.95%, taking average rents in the region to £750. The East Midlands and the North East also saw minor increases.

The shifts in July’s figures take the average rent for the whole of the UK to £906 per month, with London still home to the highest rents by some.

The average rent in the capital currently stands at £1,608. This is almost twice that of the next most expensive region, the South East, where the average rental cost was £992 a month in July.

Unsurprisingly, London remains the least affordable region for renters in the UK, with an affordability ratio of 3.3.

Goodlord defines affordability as a tenant’s guaranteed yearly income divided by their yearly rent share, with 2.5 considered the minimum affordable ratio.

The North East, West Midlands and Wales were the most affordable regions in July, each with an average affordability ratio of 3.9.

Meanwhile, the South West continues to have the lowest average void periods in the UK, where it took just nine days to fill a property in July.

It took almost three times as long to fill a vacant property in the East Midlands in July, where the average void period remained unchanged from June at 25 days.

But all eight regions were recording lower void periods in July than their year-to-date average, pointing to an uptick in the pace of lettings across the UK as a whole.

Tom Mundy, COO at Goodlord, said: “While average monthly rents slipped across the majority of regions in July, the void figures for the last two months show signs of a market picking up pace.

“June and July’s void figures are much lower than the 2019 average void periods for each region, perhaps indicating the release of pent up demand from tenants who postponed decisions until after the Tenant Fee Ban came into force. This is good news for agents and landlords at a time of industry flux.”

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