Wrexham is Britain’s busiest rental market with 54 enquiries per home
- Rightmove’s Demand Tracker reveals that Wrexham is the busiest rental market, with letting agents receiving an average of 54 enquiries per available property:
- This compares to an average of 19 enquiries per rental property across Great Britain
- Glasgow (52 enquiries per property) is second and Bristol (51 enquiries per property) is third
- Average advertised rents outside London are at a record of £1,349 per calendar month, 5% higher than this time last year
- While the market is still very busy, demand has been easing in the rental market compared with last year, supply has been improving, and price growth has been slowing
- However, with a record proportion of former rental homes now being put up for sale, the market needs more supply of available homes and landlord investment to prevent a reversal in these improvements
Rightmove’s Demand Tracker reveals that Wrexham is the busiest rental market, based on millions of local data points across more than 250 local authorities.
An average letting agent in Wrexham is currently receiving 54 enquiries for every rental home that comes onto the market.
This high-volume of applications from prospective tenants compares to a Great Britain average of 19 in the rental market right now.
Glasgow is second on the list, with an average of 52 enquiries being sent to letting agents per available rental property, and Bristol is third on the list, with an average of 51 enquiries per property.
Meanwhile, average advertised rents outside London are now a record £1,349 per calendar month (pcm) and 5% higher than this time last year. However, this is down from the peak annual rate of growth of 12% in 2022 and is the slowest that rents have been increasing since 2021. The 5% growth is in-line with Rightmove’s price prediction for the rental market for this year.
While the market is still very busy, the imbalance between supply and demand in the rental market has been improving this year.
The number of tenants looking for a home has dropped by 16% compared to last year, and at the same time, the overall number of available homes on the market has improved by 8%.
The rental market is still in need of more supply of available homes to prevent a reversal in the improvements to the balance of supply and demand this year.
The number of tenants looking for a home is still 17% ahead of the more normal pre-pandemic 2019 market, while the number of available rental homes is still 32% behind the same period in 2019.
A recent report from Rightmove also identified that a record proportion of former rental homes are now available on the sales market, a sign of more landlords selling up, with high mortgage rates, a potential increase to capital gains tax and increased costs to landlords all potential drivers of the increase.
Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s property expert, says: “Whilst at a high-level there has been an easing in the rental market compared with last year, from speaking with agents, we know that many local markets are yet to feel the effect from these improvements. At the same time, prospective tenants are still likely to be experiencing a very hot and competitive market. To be receiving upwards of 50 enquiries per available rental property in some local areas is an astonishing figure, which goes to show the significant amount of work still to be done to improve the balance of supply and demand across different areas of Great Britain.”
Rightmove’s Demand Tracker: Top 20 Busiest Markets
Area | Average number of enquiries per available rental property | Average advertised rent per calendar month |
Wrexham | 54 | £967 |
Glasgow | 52 | £1,078 |
Bristol | 51 | £1,658 |
Plymouth | 50 | £1,137 |
Wirral | 47 | £999 |
Salford | 47 | £1,232 |
Stockport | 46 | £1,384 |
Oldham | 45 | £1,022 |
Tameside | 45 | £1,091 |
Bath and North East Somerset | 45 | £1,784 |
Blackpool | 44 | £805 |
Rochdale | 42 | £1,048 |
Lancaster | 41 | £992 |
Liverpool | 41 | £1,018 |
Edinburgh | 41 | £1,582 |
Manchester | 41 | £1,362 |
Norwich | 41 | £1,229 |
Telford and Wrekin | 40 | £1,030 |
Bury | 40 | £1,088 |
Wigan | 39 | £895 |
ENDS
About Rightmove
- Rightmove has the UK’s largest selection of properties for sale and to rent, adds more listings than anyone else, and over 80% of all time spent on property portals is on Rightmove
- Rightmove’s vision is to give everyone the belief that they can make their move by giving people the best place to turn and return to for access to tools and expertise to make it happen
- People can search Rightmove for residential resale, new homes, rentals, commercial property and overseas properties and use tools and information including getting a Mortgage in Principle, checking local sold prices, property valuations, market trends, maps and schools
- Customers include the following key groups: estate agents, lettings agents, new homes developers, rental operators, commercial property operators and overseas property agents
- Using the UK’s largest housing datasets, we issue a number of regular reports to track housing market indicators: our monthly House Price Index (established 2002), our quarterly Rental Trends Tracker (established 2015), and a weekly Mortgage Rates Tracker (established 2023). Historical data is available on request
- Founded in 2000, Rightmove listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2006 and is a member of the FTSE 100 index
- For more information, please visit rightmove.co.uk/claims
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