ZOOPLA UK Rental Market Report – December 2023 (Watch/Read/Listen)

 

PODCAST: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fife-properties/episodes/ZOOPLA-UK-Rental-Market-Report–December-2023-e2d8hh9

Executive summary

 

  • The UK is past peak rental growth. We expect annual UK rental growth to halve over 2024 to 5%, the lowest growth since 2021.

 

  • London will lead the slowdown with rents expected to increase by just 2% over 2024 as affordability pressures impact demand.

 

  • Demand is weakening slowly off a high base, down 11% year on year, but still a third higher than the 5-year average.

 

  • There are signs asking rents have overshot in some markets, evidence of growing resistance to higher rents.

 

  • The supply-demand imbalance in rented housing is not going to disappear in 2024 but the market will become more into balanced.

 

  • Rents in regional markets are set to out-perform where affordability is less of a constraint on rental growth.