Falling rental stock creating landlords market

Falling rental stock creating landlords market

The availability of rental stock in cities has fallen to the lowest level since before the pandemic – meaning landlords are in the driving seat when selecting tenants, Octane Capital research has found.

There are just 64,839 rental properties listed across 21 major UK cities, compared to a high of 171,080 by this time last year.

During the final stages of 2019 and prior to the pandemic, there were a total of 82,726 rental homes available to tenants across these 21 cities.

nathan Samuels, chief executive of Octane Capital, said: “The rental market revival is in full swing and the recent decision to lift all remaining Covid protocols will have only bolstered this confidence further, as tenants return to our major cities in their droves to both live and work.

“This will make for extremely welcome reading by the nation’s landlords who have suffered greatly due to dwindling demand during the pandemic, forcing them to massively reduce their rental income expectations while also suffering from lengthy void periods.

“It’s fair to say that we couldn’t find ourselves in a more different place at present and if anything, there is now a shortage of suitable rental stock to meet this returning demand. As a result, we’re seeing sharp growth in rental incomes and while this won’t negate the impact of the last two years, it will certainly help steady the ship moving forward.”

London has seen the largest return to form of all cities when compared to this pandemic peak in available rental properties at the end of 2020.

The level of currently available rental homes has fallen by -74% across the capital, while Edinburgh (-69%), Aberdeen (-64%), Newcastle (-62%) and Cardiff (-59%) have also seen some of the largest reductions when comparing current levels to the highs seen in December 2020.