UK’s short -term let market grows by 41%

According to the report by Easyroomate, a UK, flat sharing site, noticed the number of short- term lets in UK to have jumped up in April.

Short -term lets accounted to 41% of the properties listed, leading to an increase of 2% in the last 6 months to over 6000 properties.

This trend is seen to be occurring in the major cities of UK.  Majority of them taking place in:

• London – 21%
• Manchester- 3%
• Birmingham – 3%
• Bristol- 2%
• Leeds – 2%

The report further gives information on people who availed short-term letting in UK. These groups include professionals, students with age groups ranging between 26-30, closely followed by the age groups of 31-39, and 21-25.

Many have been talking positively with regards to the benefits landlords and tenants are deriving from short-term letting.

While for tenants, the short-term lettings have helped them get a shelter at a quicker pace than usual and at an affordable price and exactly for a time that they want to live for.  On the other hand, the landlords have benefitted by getting a guaranteed, regular income without having to bother about the usual complains arising from long tenancy by tenants.

Jonathan Moore, director of Easyroommate.co.uk, comments: " A short term let is a great way for homeowners to boost their income without the long term commitment usually associated with the average tenancy, our figures show that a growing number of our users are switching on to the freedom short term let's provide."

"Whilst a normal tenancy within a flat share typically lasts a year, a short term let can last from one week up to six months, and is typically used to fill rental voids. The short term option is  extremely popular amongst live-in landlords, with 44% of the short term lets  listed on the Easyroommate website during April being offered by live in landlords, they are closely followed by current flat mates, who attribute to 35% of the short term lets available, says the site director.

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Private Residential Rents in UK tumbles

Report from the independent estate agency in UK, haart, noticed a fall in the average residential rent in UK up to 4.3% in May.  The report further states a marked fall at round £919 a month in May for residential properties in London, in the month of May.

Also interesting fact was a fact that, outside London, saw an increase in rental rates by 0.7%. to £791 over the same period.  However, on the whole, the overall average rate of rent has have only been slowing since the beginning of 2012.

The trend is seen as a sigh of relief for tenants. As such, with the current economic changes and stagnancy being experienced, owning a home is as much difficult as selling and therefore, renting is the only way out.

This is making people to seek a house for rent in London and South East.

While a report from Knight Frank shows rental dips in prime central London by 0.3%. The report also stressed on the lower supply in relation to the demand of the rented houses. This is seen evident in mid-market, where the mid- level city jobs have been affected by the cutbacks.  'With the ongoing troubles in the Eurozone and associated uncertainty in the finance sector, there is little sign of this reversing in the coming months,' the report says.

With regards to the higher and lower rental brackets, the market is seen much more active as it sees a rise in seasonal demand of family houses with four or five bedrooms, priced above £2,000 per week are being preferred as families look to settle over the summer before the academic year starts in September.

Further there were also the reports which stated the negative effect in terms of shortage or no houses on rent during the summer Olympics in London. Had this been effected upon, then the rental market in UK would have surely seen a surge. However, the reports stated, 'rental accommodation in prime London could be in short supply due to this summer's Olympic Games have clearly not yet been borne out. While this could be because this high demand for short lets simply wasn't there, it could be argued that the demand was in effect removed by the move by LOCOG, the London Organizing Committee, to release a further 600,000 hotel room nights which were previously set aside for officials and the media but are no longer required.'

The demand could rise further when in summer families search for houses before their children start going to school in September and also the with that there will be higher rate of foreign student lettings, who will be coming to London to study further, sometime in August.

That said, other findings of the report were low tenant registration down to 8% and property viewings down to 7%, new property instructions were up by 21% and while tenancies commenced were up 1% while the ratio of new applicants to new instructions registered a fall from 4.6 in 2011 to 3.6 in 2012.

All in all, UK did see a downfall in its average rental rates and that this is a sign of relief for tenants but also what is a bit depressing is the fact that the mid-market is suffering from deflated demand. Else from that, at present the tenancy scene in UK seems to be stable.

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The thriving rental market of UK

Latest report from Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), states a marked increase in the rental rates of residential property in UK from the onset of the year till month.  The increased rental rate has been due to an increased demand over the supply.

One of the effective reason for seeking rental houses is due to the struggling times the economy is challenging people to lead a different style. This had made renting a "way of life".  It is for this reason we see the private rental sector growing wherein more household are seen renting houses for a longer time of period.  With the house price rising, and mortgage finance becoming expensive, renting is the only way out as it is a feasible option and easy to fund.

Now these rental rates for residential properties are not high everywhere.  It is true that rates have roared in general, but if considered city/area wise, the rents could be much more higher/lower than that of other areas.  For instance, in London, a two bed house is equivalent to 53% of the average single person's salary whereas the same property in North East of England is equal to 25% of an individual's salary.

Other factor affecting the rent, other than the area is the size of the property.  The smallest of the properties have seen a rush of demand for them since they are cheaper. This is good for the landlords holding small property but on the whole, this has been creating enormous demand over supply, thereby only letting to increased rental rate, which in future will have a detrimental effect on the present as well as prospective tenants.  While the rental rates for big properties and those in posh areas have registered a downfall, while making the median band of property remain stable.

Many people in UK are considering buying a property but with the higher mortgage finance, renting only seems to be an affordable option.  But, however, even here the demand will make sure the tenants pay more rent. Therefore, the rental rates are expected to go up further in the next one year.

The survey by the RICS prompts a positive growth trend of the renting marking from the second quarter of 2012. 13% of the survey participants predicted a rental increase while the rest predicted for the stability in the rental market.

While on the whole the rent market of UK looks too good and promising, there is the problem of rent arrears, with the unpaid rent going up to as high as 10%, around £306 million.

Today, with the changing times and the economic pressure faced, people are choosing to rent rather than to buy. Keeping the factors in mind, it becomes vitally important to regulate the renting sector and provide the best services to the needed.

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Families in London need, £ 3, 500 per month to afford a rented home

A report analysis, Homes for London campaign, by Shelter, analyzed the cost of renting across the capital . The report showed that people in London needs to earn £3,500 per month, making it a total of £ 52,00 per annum to afford themselves rented property in UK.  More important, that this amount is needed to afford a two bed house only.

However, if you're eyeing to be a tenant in eight London boroughs including Hackney and Tower Hamlets, then they would need to earn more than £60,000 per annum.  The numbers of tenants under private renting have increased to about one in every four households and on the same, even the rents have risen by 7% in 2011.

Keeping the economic downturn in mind, many people are coming to London for work, and with the current trend, as such earning is a hard thing, and on top almost many tenants spend half their incomes on paying rents. This brings us to question the trend of high rents and its detrimental effect on tenants'' savings.  If this rate of rent is to continue, then this will seriously pose financial for tenants the challenge of struggling financially, in the already finically odd time.

Shelter chief executive Campbell Robb said: "With so many Londoners locked out of homeownership, more and more families have no other option but to rent – but rents are now so out of touch with wages that some families are spending over half of their income just to keep a roof over their head, leaving little left for food, fuel and other essentials."

The only thing that Homes for London campaign is asking for lowering or at least regulating the private rented sector, so that the private landlords don't charge the economical /vulnerable tenants high rental charges.  For this, the Homes for London campaign is wanting the next mayor to stand up for this cause and help influence the sector by formulating local policies that will help bettering the position of the tenants and prevent the capitalist tendency of the private landlords when they charge high rents, or deny repaying the tenant deposits, or any of such scrupulous acts performed.

This was seen true in an Ipsos Mori poll released last week, where the people of London, more precisely, the tenants in London have had only stressed on making policy with the mayoral candidates to chalk a way to reduce the cost of private renting.

Since, in this hard hit economic time, buying and selling home doesn't fetch you a regular income, renting does exactly what you need. It is this very mentality attached to renting, that has made the minds of the landlords, private landlords especially, capital minded.  If the landlords can get a steady monthly income, then why not increase and earn more in these times? This very mindset makes leads to tenants' exploitation. This is why we see, the value of let homes in UK mounting to £840bn. If this trend continues for a long then by 2016, we'll see the rental incomes generated by the private landlords shall be to the tune of £70bn.

With the problems of house building happening to the minimum and the demand increasing as hell due to the increase in population, changing needs of ageing population, the changes in family pattern, the break-ups and divorces, have all led to an exceeding demand not able to keep pace with the supply.

Keeping in mind the problems, UK needs policies and laws both at state and national level to ensure its people their right to live in a house, securely and safely.

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