The latest Your move England and Wales Rental Tracker for December has shown eight regions post annual rental increases.
Despite the Christmas period often registering a slowdown as tenants are reluctant to move over the festive season, the rental tracker showed that 2018 bucked the usual trend with rental prices rising on both a monthly and annual basis.
Across all of England and Wales rental prices rose by an average of 1.8 per cent throughout the last year, finishing up at an average of £865 per calendar month (seasonally adjusted).
The strongest annual rent inflation was seen in the South West according to the rental tracker, while on a monthly basis in December the West Midlands posted the strongest performance.
Annual growth in the South West was measured at 4.1 per cent to reach an average monthly rental of £702 per calendar month. Three regions still have higher average rents than the South West, though average rents dropped in two of those regions.
The East of England has an average rent of £881 per calendar month, but this represents an annual fall of 1.4 per cent compared to December 2017.
The South East of England saw rates continue to rise by 1.2 per cent according to the rental tracker, to just short of the £900 mark at an average of £897.
There was good news for buy to let property investors when it came to yields, with the rental tracker finding each of the ten regions recording the same average yields as in the previous month of November.
Average rental yields across England and Wales also remained the same at 4.3 per cent.
The North East and North West regions continue to offer the best rental yields for landlords, with yields of 5 per cent and 4.8 per cent respectively.
National Lettings Director at Your Move, Martyn Alderton, commented: ‘While the rental market tends to wind down as we reach the end of the year, there were still some positive advancements this year, with prices rising in all but two regions.’
He continued: ‘While landlords in most areas saw their yields squeezed in 2018, there was good news as returns held firm between November and December.’
Source: Residential Landlord