Tenants leave city centres as rents rise 11% says Rightmove

Tenants are leaving expensive city centres and moving further out, new research reveals.

They are making the move in a bid to find a cheaper place to live or to get more for their money, as the average UK asking rent has risen 11 per cent in the last year. 

It is up from 37 per cent who were looking to leave last year and up from 28 per cent pre-pandemic in February 2020.

London has seen the biggest increase in the proportion of renters looking outside the city compared with a year ago, followed by Sheffield and Manchester.

Rightmove attributed the increase to rents rising at a record pace in the past few years, and a decline in the number of available properties to move to.

Average asking rents across Britain are up 11 per cent compared with this time last year, and up 12 per cent across ten major city centres on average.

Edinburgh City Centre has seen the largest increase in average asking rents compared with last year, up 19 per cent, followed by Inner London, up 18 per cent, and Manchester city centre, up 14 per cent.

Rightmove explained that demand from tenants to secure a rental property has rapidly increased.

Source of data and images: dailymail