Landlords concerned about government attitudes towards industry

The property portal’s research also found that 41% of landlords are concerned about rising taxation, 33% are worried about increasing compliance requirements, and 25% are anxious about the rising cost of buy-to-let mortgages.  

It’s unsurprising then that there has been a three percent increase in the number of properties for sale that were previously on the rental market when compared to January 2019 – going from 13% to 16%.  

As well as this, the data suggests landlords are particularly concerned about their properties currently for sale with a lower EPC rating, with 33% of landlords who own such property planning to sell them rather than make improvements to their EPC rating – compared with 20% who planned to sell last year for this reason.

It also found the majority – 57% – of landlords said, on average, tenants choose to stay in their properties for longer than 24 months – with only eight percent saying they stay for a year or less.  

This all comes as the national average asking rents for properties outside of London hit a new record of £1,231 a month in the second quarter of this year (April to June 2023) – with prices for new tenants now more than £300 or 33% higher than in 2019. Despite this, the average asking rents for new tenants is slowing slightly, although it still remains near double digits.  

As for London, the average asking rents for new tenants also reached a new record high of £2,567 per calendar month.  

In addition to this, homes are continuing to be let at speed with the average time a rental property spends on the market now being 17 days. Meanwhile, tenant demand is up three percent when compared to the same period last year, however the available properties to rent went up by seven percent.  

Rightmove’s director of property science Tim Bannister said: “The number of available properties to rent continues to improve compared to last year’s record low levels providing tenants with more choice, though with a long way to go to catch up with pre-pandemic levels of stock, there will continue to be more tenants looking to move than properties for them to move to for a while yet.  

“Average asking rents for new tenants have risen at a rapid pace since the pandemic reflecting the significant increase in demand, which is driven by a combination of factors including changed housing needs, such as some space to work from home.

“Landlords are currently having to navigate a multitude of challenges, but the data suggests it remains important to build long-term relationships with good tenants, with the majority of tenants choosing to stay in their property for longer than two years.”