Will Rental Values Rise In 2020?

It is perfectly natural for people to look ahead and wonder what 2020 will hold for them. This is the case for people in their personal life, and it is the case for people in their professional life. If you are a landlord, you are likely entering the New Year with a mix of enthusiasm and caution.

At Hunters Forest Hill, we aim to provide you with as much guidance and support as we can. We are specialists in the local area, but we also pay attention to what industry experts say about the letting sector. If you are a landlord in Forest Hill, you may be pleased to know HomeLet predict rental fees and values will increase in 2019.

The company has looked back at 2019 figures, and they expect the sustained growth which occurred in 2019 will continue this year. At the end of 2019, the average rental fee in the United Kingdom stood at £953; which was a 3.5% increase on the figures from the previous year.

Rental fees are still rising in London

The average rental fee in London stood at £1,630; which represented an increase of 2.1% on the previous year. When you remove London figures from the rest of the UK, you end up with an average rental fee of £793. This is an increase of 3.9% on the previous year’s figures.

HomeLet considered 12 regions, and there was a growth in rental values between December 2018 and December 2019 in every region. In seven of the 12 regions, there was a growth of more than 5%.

The Chief Executive of HomeLet, Martin Totty; said; “It’s been an interesting year for the property market as a whole. Despite Brexit implications remaining unknown for a majority of 2019, the private rental sector has continued to conform to the basic economic principle of supply and demand and has only seen rises edging just beyond the rate of inflation until recent months. Rental price growth has been on an upward trajectory since mid-2017, driven primarily by an acceleration in the regions outside of London.”

Many factors influence the rental market

While the ability to buy homes is a factor which shapes the letting market, there is a lot more to the industry than mopping up the people who cannot afford to buy a property. Landlords have a lot of decisions to make, and the introduction of the Tenant Fees Act has impacted many letting industry professionals in the past year.

The Act came into force in June of 2019, and it has minimised the charges landlords can impose on tenants. However, over time, there is an argument that landlords pass these charges on to tenants with higher rental fees. In this regard, it cannot be a surprise to see rental fees rising, or for industry experts to suggest rental fees will continue to rise.

At Hunters Forest Hill, we know letting property is challenging, but we are here to assist you in the process. If you aim to buy, sell, let your home or rent property, we are active in New Cross, Peckham, Dulwich and Brockley, in addition to Forest Hill, so get in touch with one of the top three agents in London, and we will be happy to assist you.