Industry body comments on latest ONS House Price and Private Housing Rental Price Indexes

Propertymark comments on Private Housing Rental Prices Index and UK House Price Index; and impact rising rent prices is having on lower income households.

Nathan Emerson, CEO, Propertymark

Commenting on today’s ONS Index of Private Housing Rental Prices, Nathan Emerson, CEO of Propertymark, said:

“The latest ONS Private Housing Rental Prices Index reiterates our growing concerns over the affordability of rented housing for people across England and Wales due to a lack of supply.

“Our latest Private Rented Sector Housing Report shows that 74 per cent of agents reported rising rents with this being most apparent in London, the East Midlands and Wales.

“Those on lower incomes are facing the brunt of rising rents and our agents report consistent disparities between local housing allowance rates and market rent prices.

“The recent talk of rent controls is not the answer and in many instances such controls have failed and have hit hardest those that they are designed to assist. In order to resolve this, the simple math of imbalanced supply and demand has to be addressed by introducing further investment in both the private rented and social sectors.”

Headline figures from Propertymark’s latest Private Rented Sector Report for February:

• An average letting agent branch had 142 applicants registered on their books. This is a record high for the month of February and year on year a 73 per cent increase from February 2021.
• An average branch had just five properties available to rent. This is a 44 per cent decrease from a four-year average of nine.
• The number of new properties being rented out by agents has fallen for the third month in a row.
• 74 per cent of Propertymark agents reported rising rents.

Commenting on today’s ONS House Price Index for January, Nathan Emerson, CEO of Propertymark, said:

“The amount of properties going for over the asking price is still a figure that’s over three times more than what we would see in a pre-pandemic market however, what these ONS figures suggest is that the cost of living, energy prices and interest rates rising mean buyers are beginning to be more cautious with their cash.

“Our own data shows there are more properties entering the market, bringing signs of an equalising between supply and demand which will likely have a more stabilising effect on prices in the coming months.”

Headline figures from Propertymark’s Housing Market Report for February:

• The number of properties listed per member agent branch have risen to 23, the highest it’s been for five months.
• New buyers registering at each member branch is down to 67 from 100 the previous month.
• There were 23 homes per member branch and 552 registered house hunters, meaning on average each has a ratio of 26 potential buyers for every available property — down on January’s figure of 29.

Kindly shared by Propertymark

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