Rents hit a new record high in July according to the latest buy-to-let index from LSL Property Services. You might think that’s good news. It might be for landlords. But for us, it’s another symptom of the country’s malfunctioning property market.
The average rent is now £725 per month according to LSL – up 2.8% compared with a year ago. London continues to roar ahead but rents are not going up as fast as they were at the beginning of the year.
But rising rents are not something to cheer. For one thing it means that more people have less money to spend after they have paid for a roof over their head every month. We don’t celebrate rising petrol prices. Will anyone be cheering when the price of bread starts going up soon because there isn’t as much wheat around? Rising rents are just another squeeze on the cash flows of consumers. It’s not what the UK economy needs right now.
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