Is the rental market still screwed?

Last year was completely nuts in the UK rental market, as you may remember from this post.

The question is, what's going on now? Is there any more supply?

The simple answer is, we don't completely know. But, there are some signs that things may not get quite as bad this year and the market will re-balance to some extent.

Supply vs demand

This is really what it's all about. At the height of last year's chaos, the ratio of active renters to live room ads was just over 8:1 in the UK (almost 9:1 in London).

It's that ratio that could hold the key to understanding what might happen in the summer.

In May 2023, there were 11% more active renters UK-wide than in May 2022 (5% more in London).

But - and here's the key bit - there were 14% more live room ads (12% more in London). That means the ration of renters to rooms is lower than last year.

Here's what that looks like over time:

Those big spikes were at the height of late summer/early autumn madness last year. As you can see, things are slowly improving. We definitely expect to see a spike in new (and returning) renters this summer. It might not be as big as last year, but it could easily be.

The question is whether the supply of rooms will continue to outpace that. If so, things will be slightly more balanced.

For updates, insights and data on the UK rental market, keep an eye on our statistics pages on the website.