Rental Demand climbing but still lagging behind 2023 highs

Tenant demand for mainstream rental homes climbed by 1.5% between Q1 and Q2 2024, although demand remains 2.3% lower than this time last year.
 
That’s the story from a new analysis of rental demand across each county in England based on the number of available rental properties that have already seen a let agreed as a proportion of total rental stock available.
 
Demand across England sat at 33.3% during the second quarter of this year, meaning that a third of all rental properties listed on the market had found a tenant.
 
Herefordshire has seen the largest quarterly increase of all English counties, with rental demand climbing by 11.9% between Q1 and Q2 2024.
 
The City of London has seen the second largest quarterly increase, up 8.4%, with Northumberland (7.3%), the West Midlands (7.2%) and Cumbria (6%) also making the top five largest quarterly increases.
 
When it comes to the hottest rental markets at present, West Sussex is home to the highest levels of tenant demand, with 57.2% of all rental properties having found a tenant during the second quarter of this year. Somerset also ranks high where tenant demand sat at 53.7% in Q2, followed by Suffolk (53.4%), Dorset (53%) and Cornwall (49.9%).

In contrast, Nottingham was home to the lowest tenant demand levels where just 18.5% of all rental properties available in the current market had been let.

The analysis was committed by Zero Deposit and a spokesperson says: “Demand is particularly strong across a number of south coast hotspots and as we enter further into the summer months, this is likely to remain the case. However, demand for rental properties across the nation is still yet to return to the same levels seen last year and it’s clear that the ongoing issue of affordability is continuing to restrict the market, particularly in the current economic landscape.
 
“There are growing examples of later stage drop outs and properties staying on the market for longer as renters have a greater choice of property and see less of a need to heavily compromise on their next home. We’re seeing record interest in our product from letting agents and landlords looking to increase their pool of tenants and reduce time to let. 
 
“In doing so, letting agents in low demand areas, in particular, are finding that they are able to boost rental demand levels, as they allow tenants an alternative path to securing a rental property.”