The latest research from Zero Deposit has revealed that surging demand for rental homes has caused the average rent to spiral in recent years, with UK tenants now paying 46% more per month than they were a decade ago.
The latest figures on the supply of PRS stock shows that in 2023, there were an estimated 5.22 million rental homes across the UK, an annual reduction of -0.3% and down -3.1% versus the peak of 5.38 million private rental homes seen in 2017.
The result of this growing demand versus a lack of available homes? Rental prices have spiralled in recent years.
The latest figures show that the average monthly rent climbed to £1,232 in 2023.
This marked a 9.7% increase on the previous year, with the average rent also increasing by 9.7% between 2021 and 2022 and by 5.8% between 2020 to 2021.
To put this into perspective, in the seven years between 2014 and 2020, the average UK rent increased by an annual average rate of just 2.3%.
In the last three years, this annual rate of growth has averaged at 8.4% per year and in the last decade alone, the average monthly cost of renting in the UK has climbed by 46% (2014 to 2023).
Sam Reynolds, CEO at Zero Deposit commented: “It’s clear that our reliance on the rental market has been growing consistently over the last decade, however, demand for rental homes has exploded in recent years as soaring house prices have forced many to postpone their plans to purchase.
“We simply don’t have an adequate supply of quality rental accommodation to satisfy this surge in demand and the consequence of this market imbalance has been a huge acceleration in the cost of renting.”
