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Rental Index ReportDecember 2017Powered by MIAC

Key Feature: Rental increase and rail fare rise

Area Spotlight: Slough

Analysis: The commuter cost of travelling to London

Statistics: December 2017

Rental Breakdown: Average rents across England

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Average Rental Price Rise Across the UK - Year on Year

England

London

Scotland

Wales

Northern Ireland

£1,227

£1,872

£729

£643

£563

0.50%

-0.80%

1.18%

1.36%

0.75%

Statistics: December 2017

Rest of UK

London

Tenants occupying properties in London are now spending an average of £1,872 on rent, whilst tenants outside the capital are paying £759 on average.

Tenants occupying properties in London are now spending an average of £1,448 on rent for 1-bedroom properties, £1,918 for 2-bedroom properties and £2,671 for 3-bedroom properties. Conversely, tenants occupying properties in the rest of the UK are paying an average of £599 on rent for 1-bedroom properties, £714 for 2-bedroom properties and £827 for 3-bedroom properties.

Since December 2016, average rents in the UK have risenby 0.56% to £1,196. In England, rents were up by 0.50%to £1,227/ month; in London, rents fell by -0.80% to £1,872.In Northern Ireland, rental prices rose by 0.75% to £563/month. Meanwhile, in Scotland, rents grew by 1.18% to £729/ month; in Wales, the average rent rose by 1.36% to £643.

Average Rent in London vs Rest of UK

Average Rent by No. of Beds

£759

£1,872

1 2 3 £1,448 £1,918 £2,671

Rental prices according to no. of beds

1 2 3 £599 £714 £827

Rental prices according to no. of beds

London Rest of UK

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Key Feature: Rental Increase and Rail Fare Rise

Commuters face rental increase amid rail fare price rise

London commuters were faced with an unwelcome surprise at the beginning of January, as they stepped back into work to the tune of a 3.6% rise in season ticket prices across the whole of the UK. The fare increase is the largest of its kind since 2013 and comes as rents in the most popular commuter towns also experience significant growth, increasing the overall financial burden for tenants working in the city.

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Of the total London commuter hotspots found in the East or South East of England, 17 towns were hit with the double blow, as extra annual expenditure of rail fares surpassed spending on higher rents. On average, rents in these areas rose by £183 (1.68%) in the year up to December 2017. In combination with the added cost of rail travel, commuters in these regions are facing a total additional average expense of £325/ year.

Cambridge and Brighton have seen the greatest monetary rise in rents, £228 (2.06%) and £202 (1.58%) respectively, as rail fares in both regions rose by £172 and £163.

Meanwhile, commuters living in Guildford, Reigate and Woking, all saw rents fall by £127 (-0.73%) in 2017. This will be saving enough to offset the rail fare hikes of £126, £99 and £113 respectively. Those in Aylesbury and High Wycombe (-£43) and Slough (-£4), have also made rent savings, but hardly enough to chip away at the £141, £124 and £91 increase to train fares.

John Goodall, CEO and founder of Landbay said: “Commuters have seen their season ticket prices rise by more than £100 this week, the majority of whom are also looking at a double whammy of rent rises driven by greater tenant demand. At a time when rents in the capital are falling, some may even be considering a move into London, to be done with the train commute altogether.

“With inflation riding so high, rail fare growth shows no sign of slowing, and without a radical house building plan for purchase as well as purpose-built rental properties, rental price growth is expected to accelerate this year as well.”

There are now signs that demand for low-rent accommodation by long-distance commuters to London is pushing up rents in these areas. 31 of the 40 most popular commuter routes have seen rents rise by more than the UK average of 0.56%, and by as much as 2.15% in Southend on Sea and 2.06% in Cambridgeshire.

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Analysis: The Commuter Cost of Travelling to London

Top 8 London commuter stations with the greatest increase in annual season ticket price

Prices are for the cheapest available 12-month season ticket into London terminals on any route permitted (where

available) excluding use on high speed services.

Southampton Central Milton Keynes

Canterbury Stations Hastings

Ashford International Oxford

Portsmouth Stations Colchester

Southampton Milton Keynes

Kent East Sussex

Kent Oxfordshire

Portsmouth Essex

2018 Price (£) 2018 Price (£)

2018 Price (£) 2018 Price (£)

2018 Price (£) 2018 Price (£)

2018 Price (£) 2018 Price (£)

Average Rent Month (£) Average Rent Month (£)

Average Rent Month (£) Average Rent Month (£)

Average Rent Month (£) Average Rent Month (£)

Average Rent Month (£) Average Rent Month (£)

Increase from 2017 (£) Increase from 2017 (£)

Increase from 2017 (£) Increase from 2017 (£)

Increase from 2017 (£) Increase from 2017 (£)

Increase from 2017 (£) Increase from 2017 (£)

% Change % Change

% Change % Change

% Change % Change

% Change % Change

5,702 5,209

5,412 5,159

5,379 5,097

5,230 5,105

763 932

916 781

916 1,191

864 955

198 181

188 179

187 177

182 177

0.75 0.60

1.54 1.86

1.54 0.66

0.88 1.71

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Analysis: The Commuter Cost of Travelling to London

Bottom 8 London commuter stations with the greatest increase in annual season ticket price

Prices are for the cheapest available 12-month season ticket into London terminals on any route permitted (where

available) excluding use on high speed services.

Southend Central Reigate

Sevenoaks Brentwood

St Albans city Slough

Woking Grays

Southend on Sea Surrey

Kent Essex

Hertfordshire Slough

Surrey Essex

2018 Price (£) 2018 Price (£)

2018 Price (£) 2018 Price (£)

2018 Price (£) 2018 Price (£)

2018 Price (£) 2018 Price (£)

Average Rent Month (£) Average Rent Month (£)

Average Rent Month (£) Average Rent Month (£)

Average Rent Month (£) Average Rent Month (£)

Average Rent Month (£) Average Rent Month (£)

Increase from 2017 (£) Increase from 2017 (£)

Increase from 2017 (£) Increase from 2017 (£)

Increase from 2017 (£) Increase from 2017 (£)

Increase from 2017 (£) Increase from 2017 (£)

% Change % Change

% Change % Change

% Change % Change

% Change % Change

3,531 2,847

3,502 2,673

3,502 2,631

3,249 2,379

756 1,431

916 955

1,145 961

1,431 955

123 99

122 93

122 91

113 83

2.15 -0.73

1.54 1.71

0.68 -0.04

-0.73 1.71

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Area Spotlight: Slough

The South-East Tenant Saver

Situated in the county of Berkshire, rents in Slough have been rising consistently over the past few months as more tenants move into the area. Interestingly, despite bordering high-rent areas, such as Maidenhead and Reading, and existing as a stopping point on the Crossrail route, prices in Slough remain some of the lowest in the South-East at £961/ month, almost £90 cheaper than the average rent in the region.

Out of all the London commuter stations, Slough has incurred the smallest increase in annual season ticket prices of all areas in the South-East, at £2,631. This is an increase of £91. However, in December 2017 prices here have also fallen by -0.04%, meaning that for tenants, the increase in rail travel is less of a blow here than for other towns in the same region.

Currently, average rents in Slough are almost £80/ month cheaper than the regional average at £961/ month. For one-bedroom properties tenants can expect to pay an average of £814/month, for two-bedroom properties this increases to £1,046 and for three-bedroom properties average rents sit at £1,297.

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Region AreaAverage %

change (YoY)Rental pricesby beds (£)

Rental Breakdown: Average Rents Across England

Average Rentalprice (£)

Surrey

Tyne & Wear

Cheshire

Bath and North

Hertfordshire

Northamptonshire

Warwickshire

York

Kensington &Chelsea

East Somerset

1 x

1 x

1 x

1 x

1 x

1 x

1 x

1 x

1 x

2 x

2 x

2 x

2 x

2 x

2 x

2 x

2 x

2 x

3 x

3 x

3 x

3 x

3 x

3 x

3 x

3 x

3 x

-0.73%

0.75%

0.73%

2.29%

0.68%

2.94%

2.09%

1.25%

-1.25%

£1,431

£599

£703

£969

£1,145

£727

£824

£762

£3,045

£906

£465

£497

£816

£840

£546

£633

£650

£2,134

£1,190

£546

£644

£998

£1,108

£685

£786

£776

£3,233

£1,545

£648

£751

£1,190

£1,444

£805

£860

£928

£5,446

SouthEast

NorthEast

NorthWest

SouthWest

East of England

EastMidlands

WestMidlands

Yorkshire& Humber

London

Areas with the Highest Rents England, by County

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Region AreaAverage %

change (YoY)Rental pricesby beds (£)

Rental Breakdown: Average Rents Across England

Average Rentalprice (£)

Isle of Wight

Hartlepool

Blackburn

Torbay

Peterborough

Derby

Stoke on Trent

Kingston upon Hull

Bexley

1 x

1 x

1 x

1 x

1 x

1 x

1 x

1 x

1 x

2 x

2 x

2 x

2 x

2 x

2 x

2 x

2 x

2 x

3 x

3 x

3 x

3 x

3 x

3 x

3 x

3 x

3 x

2.16%

-0.29%

0.06%

1.28%

2.73%

1.96%

2.00%

0.56%

1.12%

£577

£408

£422

£573

£634

£545

£468

£435

£1,004

£507

£367

£340

£483

£509

£409

£399

£351

£820

£596

£387

£416

£622

£660

£555

£443

£435

£1.068

£843

£457

£488

£771

£721

£639

£553

£512

£1,298

SouthEast

NorthEast

NorthWest

SouthWest

East of England

East Midlands

WestMidlands

Yorkshire& Humber

London

Areas with the Lowest Rents in England, by Region

with Darwen

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Rent Check is an online tool that allows tenants and landlords to validate movements in their own rents against others in their area in a fast and user-friendly way. The postcode search widget harnesses sophisticated UK wide data from Landbay’s monthly Rental Index, powered by MIAC. The index maps annual and monthly trends in advertised and actual rents, both geo-graphically and by bedroom number, providing unique and sensitive insight into market movements and social mobility. To validate your rent change by area and number of bedrooms, please visit rentcheck.landbay.co.uk

The Landbay Rental Index

The Landbay Rental Index includes unique granular level detail, looking at local trends to the county and London Borough level, including further segmentations by number of bedrooms.

The credibility of any index is highly dependent on the breadth and depth of underlying data used, which is why this rental index utilises data from Zoopla, the British property website. Approximately 100,000 properties are analysed each month to form the index.

The rental values are mix adjusted by property type, number of beds and geography to ensure that any change in the composition of the data over time does not skew the results. The changes in rents are calculated based on matched samples of homogenous or identical data points over time. MIAC employs sophisticated smoothing techniques and interpolation to filter ‘noise’ and optimise the signal from the data.

Landbay and MIAC do not make any declaration regarding the accuracy or completeness of the Rental Index; collectively reserving the right to adjust the methodology and to edit or withdraw any reports or data. Landbay and MIAC shall not be liable for any decisions made or action taken in response to the published data.

About Rent Check & the Landbay Rental Index