Rents fall back as new year starts, says LSL

Rents across England and Wales ended last year with falls over the last two months, while tenants’ rental arrears worsened.

But despite the seasonal fall, rents in December were 3.2% higher than the year before.

The average rent in England and Wales fell by 0.9% in December to £734 per month.

The largest falls were in the East of England and North-East, where rents dropped by 1.7%. These were closely followed by London where rents fell 1.5% and the South-East with a 1.3% fall.

Three regions had monthly increases – the West Midlands, South-West and Wales.

On an annual basis, rents remained higher than a year ago in eight out of ten regions.

Alongside rises in property values over the year, annual rental inflation means the total annual return for 2012 on a rental property grew to 6.2% in December. This represents an average return of £9,986 with rental income of £7,835 and a capital gain of £2,150.

The total amount of rent late or unpaid grew to the highest level since August 2012, with total arrears of £326m, up from £241m in November. This equates to 10.1% of all rent across England and Wales, up from November’s arrears which represented 7.4% of all rent.

All figures are from the property group LSL.