Higher Rents and Even Higher Demand, is the Local Rental Market in Crisis?
By Tim Wade – Manager Gallant Richardson Colchester
Colchester Property Rental Market Update – September 2023
Unusually, the property rental market is taking centre stage in the mainstream media, which is a change from the focus normally being on the negative speculation around the property sales market.
There is good reason for this, with rents both locally in Colchester and across the country as a whole rising at the highest rate for decades, further compounded by the lack of availability of new rental properties coming to the market.
A recent report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirms that rents in the UK are now at the highest rate on record, with a 5.3% rise in rents paid by tenants in the year up to July 2023, the biggest annual increase since its records began eight years ago.
With little sign of rents falling any time soon, as demand for private rental property continues to grow out of proportion with the available housing supply.
The government has announced reforms to protect renters’ rights through the Renters Reform Bill, which is making slow progress through Parliament. We of course agree in ensuring that renters are properly protected, but the bill does little to address the issue of rising rents, indeed it’s seen by many as being partially responsible for causing the problem.
Certainly in the current market with demand for rental property outstripping supply and with strong competition for every rental property coming to the market, often leading some tenants to offer well over market price. It must be a great time to be a private landlord, right?
Renting your property in Colchester in the current market
As you will have read above, rental properties in Colchester are in high demand, we have many quality rental applicants looking for a home, all fully qualified with good references and deposits, just waiting for the right property to come to the market.
Please feel free to call me if you are considering letting or selling your property in the Colchester area, either for an informal chat about the market and how we might help you with this or to book a market appraisal.
To see the very latest homes coming to the market, click ‘New to market homes’, this lists all of the very latest homes as they come to the market.
You can also see our ‘Recently Sold Properties’.
Tim Wade – Gallant Richardson
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