PRS rent levels
The NRLA Data Observatory is a collection of official and other well-established data sources which when combined, provide a narrative of the Private Rented Sector (PRS). The NRLA tracks approximately 45 key data sets which are updated monthly, quarterly and annually. A selection of these appear in these pages.
Our Deep Insight blog provides a regular extension of the analysis which appears here, as well as those datasets which are not published in the Data Observatory section of this website.
The blog pages also features blog posts from other organisations and academics to provide insight on the PRS. Here you can also find more in-depth summaries of our regular reports and surveys.
Chart 1: A comparison of mean and median rents in England
This chart presents data from the English Housing Survey. It compares mean and median rents in the PRS against rents in the social housing sector. These rents include rents in existing as well as new tenancies. The data provides an alternative perspective on rent increases to the data published on new tenancies which attracts a higher level of media attention.
The chart also shows how PRS rents have risen dramatically recently in the wake of inflation, rising interest rates and reported demand increases. Mean rents in the PRS for example rose by 10.5% between this English Housing Suvey and the previous iteration of the survey.
The charts below - from a different source - reflect further on inflation, rent increases and time.
Chart 2: Weekly (median) rent levels across the UK, 2019-20 - 2021-22
Median weekly rent levels, PRS 2021/22 - 2022/23
This chart shows the growth in rents between the most recent two editions of the Family Resources Survey (FRS).
The NRLA calculate the annualised CPI from April 2021 to March 2023 (the first and last fieldwork dates for the FRS on this chart) as 8.2%. So this chart is produced in a period noted for inflation and rental prices accelerating.
The chart reflects a period in which prices were rising by a noticeably higher amount than when annualised over a ten year period - shown in the next charts below.
The ten-year charts below show very little difference between England and GB. In this chart above however (even though the rapidly rising rents in Nthn Ireland are included in the UK data) rents in England – and in Wales – are clealry growing faster than the UK.
In Scotland, though money rents (median rent level) fell between these two years, they did rise rapidly – by 6.5% - the year before. Scotland was the only Nation/DA where rents rose rapidly between 2020/21-2021/22.
Chart 3: Longer term changes in median rent across the UK (Source: FRS)
Annual % change in median rents 2013/14 - 2022/23
The chart above shows long term rental increases across a ten year period. When annualised, the data highlights that the decade upto 2022/23 have been typified by modest rent increases across the PRS. Note that this data is (i) median rents and (ii) based on survey data from tenants, many of whom at this moment in time did not face annual rent increases.
- In England median rents over the period since 2013/14 grew by just over 3% per year.
- In Scotland annual rental growth was barely above zero in this decade - note that these are money rents at current prices and so not adjusted for inflation.
- In N. Ireland annual rental growth appears more strong - but the data in N. Ireland is more subject to small-sample errors.
Across the UK as a whole typical, median rental increases up to 2022/23 reflected inflation as measured by wider price indices.
Chart 4: A comparison of rental growth measures
This chart makes a comparison between median rental growth in the Family Resources Survey (FRS) - produced annually - and the new monthly measure of rental price growth in the UK, the Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR). As with the previous chart a ten-year period has been used.The growth in each of these two sets of data has been annualised.
(Note: PIPR is not available for either Northern Ireland – and by extension, the United Kingdom – for this period.)
With the exception of Scotland, the two data sets offer broadly similar results. In Scotland however the difference is much greater.
What the data highlights is:
- That over the period covered in this analysis (which effectively ends in March 2023) rent increases over the long term was lower than many recall.
- Depending on which measure and which nation/Devolved Administration (DA) is chosen, rent increases over that 10 ten year period is sometimes higher, sometimes lower than inflation (CPI) – but there is (with one exception) not that much difference.
- Low rent increases, even post-Covid, was very much the norm during this period - not least because most landlords typically did not increase rents on an annual basis. (sse for example this data from a past NRLA Landlord Confidence Index which shows 73% of landlords had frozen rents in the twelve months up until 2021Qtr2).
- Macro-economic mismanagement is at least partially responsible for the disruption to this “steady state” equilibrium.
