Most landlords planning to freeze rents next year

Just one in four intends to put rents up, and of those, only around one-third plans to hike the rent by more than 5%.

According to a new survey by Rightmove, landlords have become increasingly mindful of tenants’ ability to meet rising rent demands, with over one-fifth of current tenants (22%) spending 50% or more of their take-home pay on rent.

According to Rightmove, 25% of landlords intend to increase the monthly rent, 1% intend to reduce it, 14% are undecided and 61% intend to leave rents as they are.

Overall, rents next year would rise around 2% – compared with the annual average rise  of 4.5% since 2009.

The enormous survey – canvassing the opinions of 8,594 landlords and tenants – also found that average rents across Britain have risen by 136% in the last three years.

Most (59%) tenants said they would like to buy but cannot afford to do so. This was the highest proportion since Rightmove began its quarterly rental surveys over two years ago.

A further 30% said they would like to buy at some point in the future, and just 11% said they preferred renting.