Since the introduction of the Tenant Fees Act in June this year, tenant demand has increased to some seven times higher than at the same point last year. Perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly, many prospective tenants seem to have waited until the new legislation came into place on 1st June before committing to a property, leading to a huge upsurge in demand.
Between May and June, tenant demand is usually fairly static at around 1% over the past few years; however, this year’s increase stands at 7%. With such a rise in the number of potential renters in the marketplace, the number of property viewings also increased in July, as did the number of property transactions in turn.
Rightmove’s commercial director and housing market analyst Miles Shipside has said: “A spike in tenants looking for a new place to live indicates some unsurprisingly held out until fees to start a new tenancy were removed by the government at the start of June. The ongoing shortage of quality stock could end up being exacerbated further by landlords whose tenants are now giving their notice so they can move on without paying fees, and some of those landlords then choosing to sell up rather than let it out again.”
It would appear that the introduction of the Tenant Fees Act has led to a summer peak for the lettings market, with landlords benefitting from a saturated marketplace and rental properties being let more quickly. In the short-term, this is, of course, excellent for landlords looking to let their properties currently, and in the long term, this may suggest that the introduction of the Tenant Fee Ban will lead to more tenants in the marketplace due to it being much cheaper to move into a rental property than previously.
