Rents for residential property in the UK are expected to rise in early 2010 as the number of rental properties on the market is expected to decrease.
A new Lettings Survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), as reported by PropertyWire.com, showed that 22 per cent more surveyors expect rents to rise rather than fall in the next three months, as rental property availability falls for the first time since January 2008. The recent revival in the property market appears to have resulted in a fall in the number of rental properties ? possibly as buy-to-let landlords decide to sell up as house prices have risen.
For landlords still in the market the predicted rent rise will come as good news, with the decrease in supply as the main driver.
New instructions have reached their lowest level since the survey was first taken in 1998, with 11 per cent more surveyors seeing less new instructions than more. The figures are in direct opposition to those of late 2008 when the housing market was falling; then sellers decided to rent out their properties rather than sell.
The survey showed that the downward pressure on rents is easing back, and London and the North reported rental rises in the last quarter.
RICS spokesman Jeremy Leaf commented: ?It seems the current upward trend in the housing market is having a significant effect on the lettings market with many of the accidental landlords returning to the sales market to take advantage of the recent price increase.? He added that the recent oversupply was now reversing, which was impacting on prices and tenants were no longer in the strong bargaining position they used to be.
