Average monthly rents hit £2,500 in London and £1,190 for rest of UK

Photograph: Katharine Rose/Alamy

Average monthly rents outside London soared to a record high of £1,190 in the first quarter of this year, with tenants in the capital paying more than £2,500 for the first time, according to figures from the property website Rightmove.

National average asking rents outside London have risen for 13 consecutive quarters since the end of 2019, although the pace of growth has slowed over the last nine months, it said.

In London, average asking rents hit a record of £2,501 a month in the first three months of this year. However, the rate at which they rose slowed, up 0.9% compared with the previous three months – the smallest increase in two years.

Rightmove said the supply of rental properties coming on to the market remained “constrained” but was showing signs of improvement this year, with the overall number available 6% higher than the near-record lows recorded in the first quarter of 2022.

However, the number of rental homes on the market remained 46% below 2019’s level, according to analysis of properties listed on the website.

The imbalance between supply and demand meant competition between tenants was greater, with the number of inquires per property 173% higher in the first quarter than in the same period in 2019However, it had eased 2% since the same three months last year. Demand was 4% higher in the first three months of this year than a year earlier, and 48% higher than in the first quarter in 2019.

Tim Bannister, a director a Rightmove, said: “We have seen some early signs of improvement on squeezed supply levels this year, though with no significant influx of new properties becoming available to rent currently on the horizon, the mismatch is set to continue for some time.

“Many agents are having to manage a very high volume of tenant inquiries for every property that they let in the current market. Properties in popular areas within an affordable asking rent range of that local area are likely to be snapped up almost immediately, and on average homes are finding a tenant much more quickly than this time in 2019.

“Although there are some early signs that the gap between supply and demand is starting to narrow a little, it will still feel very competitive for tenants trying to secure a home.”