The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors has issued a warning that the United Kingdom must “stop punitive measures” against the country’s landlords. These comments from the highly respected industry body follow a year where the private landlord sector has been hit by a series of new policy changes, and not all of them beneficial. These measures look like forcing a rise in rents across the board with various measures contributing to the outcome. The latest figures show an increase in January, year on year of 2.6% overall. 36% of Landlords increased their rent. A breakdown of the rental changes has shown that the increases in overall rental prices have been driven by increases outside London, Wales up 8.8%, South East up 7.8% whilst London rents have fallen by 2.7%.
Over the next 5 years RICS now projects that rental increases will be around 25% cumulative, outpacing the growth of house prices.
One of the key factors driving this increase is the relative shortage of stocks.
