Rents rise at slowest rate for four years, Zoopla warns

Friday 12 September 2025 10:41 am

Skyrocketing rents within the UK have given option to a steadier improve as the availability of properties rises and tenant demand falls, in keeping with new figures.

Common rents are 2.4 per cent larger than a 12 months in the past, the bottom annual charge in 4 years and fewer than half of that recorded 12 months in the past, Zoopla has stated.

Richard Donnell, govt director at Zoopla, stated situations are “beginning to normalise”, including that decrease migration and higher mortgage availability for first time consumers has “eas[ed] the dimensions of the competitors for rented properties”.

“There may be additionally extra alternative for renters with extra properties for hire as landlords begin to purchase properties as soon as once more and a few house owners who can’t discover a purchaser itemizing their properties for hire,” Donnell stated.

However rental demand stays above pre-pandemic ranges as a result of unaffordability of residence possession, which is trapping folks in personal renting in lots of areas.

Rental development is on observe to be three per cent over 2025.

Peter Maskell, managing director of Brock Taylor, stated: “For landlords, success now hinges on being practical with pricing and making certain properties are each well-presented and well-located, as these are the properties that proceed to draw robust demand even because the market steadies.”

London market nonetheless but to ease

London rents rose by an round 40 per cent between 2021 and 2024 as enormous demand after a sequence of nationwide lockdowns was compounded by an increase in rates of interest as a result of Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“Whereas the scenario is enhancing, the London market stays tighter than in different elements of the UK,” Zoopla stated.

In August, authorities information confirmed that the native authorities in the UK with the least “reasonably priced” rents have been all in London. 

The variety of rental properties within the capital has solely elevated barely in comparison with different elements of the nation, as landlords battle with excessive deposits and low yields.

In reality, the capital’s most unique boroughs are among the many UK’s worst locations to spend money on 2025 as yields proceed to dry up.

London has the most important share of landlords nonetheless seeking to promote properties, at 31 per cent of all properties on the market.

Property analysts have stated {that a} potential additional tax on landlords’ rental earnings, in addition to the upcoming renter’s rights invoice, will result in much more landlords promoting up within the capital.