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UK house rents hit record high in decades, as cost-of-living crisis deepens

Saturday, 28 January 2023 2:30 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 28 January 2023 2:38 PM ]

High-rise apartments under construction can be seen in the distance behind a row of residential housing in south London, Britain, August 6, 2021. (Photo by Reuters)

The average monthly rent across Britain, excluding London, has hit a new record of £1,172 per month, a leading British property company has reported, as the people are struggling to cope with the surging inflation and worsening cost-of-living crisis.

Rightmove, a UK-based real estate company, said on its website on Friday that the tenants in London are being asked to fork out over twice that amount, with the typical private rent hitting a high of £2,480, a 5.8 percent increase from the previous quarter.

James Redington, sales and lettings director at Douglas & Gordon, was at pains to say that: “We've seen the highest rent increases we've seen for decades, and we don't expect this to slow down in the short-term.”

The website also warned of the rising gap between demand and supply, noting that more homes are getting available for rent as tenants cannot afford the renting costs.

The number of available homes to rent in December 2022 had increased by 13 percent compared with a year earlier, Rightmove said, predicting that the average number of people asking for rents across Britain will rise by 5 percent in 2023, unless there is a significant addition of available homes to rent. The average asking rent had already experienced a 7 percent rise in December 2022.

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Rightmove's director of property science Tim Bannister said: “Although the fierce competition among tenants to find a home is starting to ease, it is still double the level it was back in 2019.”

“Letting agents are seeing extremely high volumes of tenant inquiries and dealing with tens of potential tenants for each available property,” he added.

The simmering renting costs are not the only implication of the deteriorating economic situation across the UK. Energy and food prices, along with vital living costs have experienced a sharp increase in recent months, as the UK is grappling with its decades-high inflation.

Due to the worsening cost-of-living crisis and low wages, the labor forces in different industries have staged strikes across the country, paralyzing the country’s vital infrastructures, such as rail or health system.

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