Lettings Market On Fire - Rental yields now highest for six years

Posted on Thursday, January 27, 2022

Newly published rental yield from Rightmove reveals that the average yield across Great Britain is 5.5 per cent.

This is the highest yield since 2016 when it was 5.6 per cent. 

The North East and Wales have hit record yields, while yields in London, South West and Yorkshire are at their highest since 2015. Yields in the East of England and South East are at their highest since 2016.

The data comes in Rightmove’s monthly rental market tracker, which also states that average asking rents have increased at the fastest rate on record, and are now £1,068 per calendar month outside of London – that’s no less than 9.9 per cent higher than this time last year.

Average rental growth is outpacing house price growth in all but three regions - East Midlands, South West and the South East - while in London rents have hit a new record of £2,142 pcm, seeing the largest quarterly jump of any region.

Rents in the capital have risen beyond pre-pandemic levels for the first time, and are now three per cent higher than at the beginning of 2020.

Meanwhile competition between tenants for available properties is nearly double compared to this time last year.

Underlying all that, tenant demand is 32 per cent higher than this time last year but the number of available properties is 51 per cent lower.

 Landlord yields:

Region

Average landlord yield Q4 2021

Annual change in yield

Great Britain

5.5%

+0.4%

North East

7.9%

+0.4%

Scotland

7.3%

+0.5%

Wales

6.8%

+0.3%

North West

6.6%

+0.2%

Yorkshire and the Humber

6.5%

+0.1%

West Midlands

5.9%

+0.1%

East Midlands

5.9%

+0.1%

South West

5.5%

+0.2%

East of England

5.3%

+0.2%

South East

5.2%

+0.2%

London

4.6%

+0.4%

Local area biggest yield increases 2021 vs 2020:

Area

Region

Average yield 2020

Average yield 2021

Difference in yields 2021 vs 2020

Preston

North West

6.1%

9.1%

+3.1%

Exeter

South West

6.0%

8.8%

+2.7%

Swansea

Wales

9.0%

11.2%

+2.2%

Nottingham

East Midlands

8.2%

10.3%

+2.1%

Rushcliffe

East Midlands

5.6%

7.7%

+2.1%

Renfrewshire

Scotland

8.1%

9.9%

+1.8%

Gwynedd

Wales

9.3%

11.0%

+1.7%

Rhondda Cynon Taf

Wales

7.6%

9.1%

+1.5%

Warwick

West Midlands

5.9%

7.3%

+1.5%

East Ayrshire

Scotland

8.3%

9.7%

+1.4%

Via @LandlordToday