According to the SpareRoom Rental Index, released this week, room rents across the country have risen 7% since last year. The rise was not consistent across the country though, with some areas showing small falls in rents. The index takes into account rents advertised for double rooms in shared houses and flats, inclusive of bills, across all town and cities in the UK.
The towns with the biggest annual increases are concentrated in the South East, where Kingston upon Thames recorded a 56% increase. East Central London postcodes also saw a large jump, up 17% on last year’s rents. All areas of London have generally seen rent rises, whilst cities in other parts of the country have experienced falling rents – Newcastle upon Tyne and Liverpool saw room rents fall by 1%, whilst Belfast recorded a fall of 4%. Rents were close to flat in Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow, which is an indicator that supply is close to outstripping demand.
The latest figures released by SpareRoom incorporate rents for the last three months (Sep-Nov 2012) and are available to download free at www.spareroom.co.uk/rentalindex.
It’s not only about rooms, general renting charges in London have gone up. But at the same time some really nice areas to live in like St. Johns Wood are almost out of good renting space. Maybe these two are connected: the higher the demand the higher the price, if supply just stays the same.