Rents hold steady and falling voids give cause for optimism in February - Goodlord Rental Index

The latest Goodlord Rental Index indicates that February was another strong month for the lettings market, with rents holding steady and voids falling as tenants start to look beyond the pandemic. Following a better than expected performance for the lettings market in December and January, February figures provide additional cause for optimism for agents and landlords.

Average cost of rent

The average cost of rent held firm; the average for England dropped by just £3, from £875 in January to £872 in February.

The South East, South West and West Midlands all saw the average cost of rent increase slightly. The East Midlands, Greater London, North East, and North West all saw slight decreases of between 1-2%.

Voids decrease

Void periods decrease in all but one region across England during February, as the market picked up pace as it headed into Spring.

The West Midlands saw the biggest shift, with voids dropping from 26 days in January to just 14 days in February. The region hasn’t seen voids at this level since March 2020.

Elsewhere, the North East saw voids decrease by 9 days on average. And Greater London saw a drop from 25 days to 20 days.

The only region to see voids increase was the North West, where rates ticked up from 23 days to 28 days on average.

Across England as whole, the average void period is now 21 days, down from January’s 24 days.

Tenant incomes

The average income of a tenant in England dipped in February. The figure declined by 3.6% from £24,875 to £23,983. The average across the last 12 months is £24,344 - roughly in the middle of the January and February figures.

Tom Mundy, COO of Goodlord, comments:

"It’s been another strong month for the lettings sector and the drop in void average is a strong indicator for more positive months to come. Despite much attention trained on the sales market, the underlying strength of the lettings market over the past year should not be overlooked. With the roadmap now in place and the weather improving, steady rents and declining voids show consistent demand across the majority of England which will only grow as we head into summer.”