Rents continue to rise but home ownership further away for most tenants

The tenant referencing company Homelet have recently issued a report showing that rents continue to rise in the UK while more and more tenants are throwing in the towel when it comes to becoming home owners with two thirds saying that saving for a deposit is now unaffordable.

Excluding London the average rent is now £749, up 3.5% on last year.  While this is running ahead of inflation it is down on the 8.5% increase seen earlier in the year.

Homelet also report that 64% of the 15000 tenants surveyed believe that they will continue to rent for the foreseeable future.

Martin Totty, CEO of HomeLet’s parent company Barbon, said: “Our survey showed that many tenants ultimately aspire to own their own home, but that just over half of them aren’t actively saving for a deposit: 66% of those questioned said that a deposit wasn’t affordable for them.

“However, the positive news is that almost nine out of ten tenants told us they were happy with the standard of their current rented property, and the majority told us they were happy with the service provided by their landlord or letting agent.”

The report also shows that the highest rises in rent are again in Scotland with 9 regions out of 12 showing rent increases with the exceptions being the north-west, East Anglia and Northern Ireland.