Private rental costs hit record highs 

Average private rents in Britain have hit record highs, jumping by more than 20% in some areas.

Data from Rightmove shows that the average advertised rent outside London is 11.8% higher than a year ago, while in the capital it is up by 15.8%.

Between April and June the average advertised asking rent outside London hit a record of £1,126 per calendar month, 11.8% higher than a year ago. This figure is up 19% – or £177 – in the two years since the pandemic started.

London has seen a new record average advertised rent of £2,257. While London saw an annual rate of growth of 15.8%, Manchester topped the ranking of rental price hotspots, with the average asking rent climbing 23.4% in a year, hitting £1,127 in Q2.

However, some locations have seen even bigger hikes. Rightmove’s table of rental price hotspots was topped by Manchester, where the average asking rent is up 23.4% in a year – from £913 in the second quarter of 2021 to £1,127 in the same period this year.

In second place was Chatham in Kent, where the equivalent increase was 21.4%, while in third place was Liverpool, which saw a 19.4% rise.

Three seaside towns – Weymouth in Dorset, Torquay in Devon and Margate in Kent – saw above-average annual increases of 19.1%, 18% and 16.9% respectively.

The rise in housing costs is piling more pressure on households already feeling the strain of the cost of living crisis, and has been largely blamed on demand for rental properties greatly outstripping supply, leading to intense competition among tenants for what is available. Rising interest rates are also feeding through to tenants, with many landlords on tracker rates.

In the wake of the pandemic, many tenants are continuing to re-evaluate what they want from a home and where they want to live. Some have decided they want to live in the suburbs, the countryside or by the coast, which may help explain why some of the biggest rent rises have been recorded in many seaside towns and in parts of Wales.