Over the past few years, the UK rental market has been experiencing an extreme supply-demand imbalance. As lifestyles change and more renters enter the market, there simply hasn’t been enough new stock to go around. This has led to a very busy rental market.
The latest research from Rightmove has shown that the average UK property available to rent attracts 19 enquiries from potential tenants. Some areas of the country are seeing much higher demand than this. Some of the most in-demand areas for renters are seeing over 40 enquiries per property. This includes major North West cities such as Salford (47 enquiries on average), Liverpool (41), and Manchester (41).
The mismatch between demand and supply has led to sharp increases in rental prices. According to Zoopla’s latest rental market report, the North West has seen the highest annual rise in rental prices in England during September, increasing by 7.4%, or £872 in cash terms.
This has resulted in favourable conditions for buy-to-let investors in the North West region. At RWinvest, we have been targeting these high-demand cities for our latest new-build developments. West One is situated in Salford, Greater Manchester, and investors in our flagship development, The Gateway, are set to benefit from the soaring rental demand in Liverpool.