New research reveals an average of 13 prospective tenants lining up for every rental property. 

Would-be tenants face huge competition as the average number of people registering on letting agents’ books has increased by 88% from 78 to a record high of 147 between February and September, according to Propertymark. 

Estate agents said while the number of tenants house hunting keeps climbing, the number of available properties to rent has flatlined.

Data from TwentyEA shows that Lets Agreed and New Instructions are down by 19% and 25%, respectively in Q3 compared with the same period in 2019.

The downbeat performance of the sector is highlighted starkly in the Regional and Major City tables. Edinburgh is an outlier at +37.8% compared to Q3 2019, albeit from a low volume of transactions, whilst all other locations have seen double-digit declines. The largest decline can be seen Plymouth (-37.4%) followed by Glasgow (-31.0%), Newcastle Upon Tyne (-29.8%) and Cardiff (-25.2%).

Fig 1 Rental Lets Agreed by Regions & Major Cities Q3 2019 compared to Q3 2022 

Source: TwentyEA Data, November 2022

As of September 2022, all regions have settled at around 1.5 months of available stock from two months in September 2021. Lack of rental stock and continued demand are the drivers of higher rental prices. The average asking price across the UK was sitting at £1,605 per month in Q3 2022, 19% higher than in Q3 2019. 

Philip Farrell, CCO & Co-Founder of Offr, commented: “Many landlords have sold up in recent years due to the Government’s relentless taxation measures and rising living and mortgage costs.

“Nearly two-thirds of all fixed-rate buy-to-let mortgages will expire by the end of 2024, according to the credit rating agency Moody’s, so landlords could be paying significantly higher interest rates. 

“Invariably this costs will be passed onto tenants who are facing rising rental prices and a shortage of housing stock, making hunting for a rental property increasingly competitive. This is pushing up the workload of agents and landlords who are having to deal with screening rising numbers of tenants for each property.

“We have developed Offr for lettings, to help agents manage a significant volume of rental applications with ease. The platform captures all interest in a property and streamlines the application process from start to finish. A feature agents love, is the ability to pre-qualify tenants through a customisable application form. All applications can easily be reviewed from the agent dashboard and progressed based on suitability.  

Offr has two offices in London and Dublin. All the technology has been designed and developed in-house, with no outsourcing. Offr provides a range of digital alternatives to all possible transaction types: Private Treaty, Auction, Tender, New Homes, Commercial Sales, Residential Lettings and Commercial Leases. 

Offr has commercial partnerships with DocuSign; Oooba, the largest mortgage provider in South Africa; Onate, an alternative mortgage provider in Ireland; and Thirdfort, a fast-scaling provider of Identity as a Service, and Anti-Money Laundering checks in the UK.

Customers include well known international estate agency brands such as Knight Frank, Cushman & Wakefield, Savills, as well as Irish firms including Lisney, Sherry FitzGerald, CBRE, and Quillsen, alongside a myriad of independent firms.

For further information please visit offr.io or email info@offr.io.

Find out how Offr can help your agency here.