NewsRescue
Private rental costs paid by tenants in the UK increased by 5.3% in the year to July, the highest annual percentage change since records began in 2016, according to statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The figure increased from 5.2% the previous month, with costs steadily rising over the last two years.
Annual private rental costs increased by 5.2% in England, 6.5% in Wales, and 5.7% in Scotland, according to the ONS.
The West Midlands, Yorkshire and the Humber, and London had the biggest yearly percentage change in private rental prices in England, at 5.5%, while the North East had the lowest, at 4.6%.
The ONS data also revealed that house price rise was slowing, reaching 1.7% in the year to June, down from 1.8% in May and significantly below the peak of 14% in July last year.
According to the research, the average house price in the United Kingdom in June was £288,000 ($368,000). Over the year, average house prices in England climbed by 1.9% to $391,000, by 0.6% to $272,000 in Wales, and by 2.7% to $222,000 in Northern Ireland. House prices in Scotland remained virtually steady, averaging $241,000.
“Annual house price inflation, as measured by final transaction prices, slowed again in June, but the fall was gentler than we have seen in previous months,” said Aimee North, the ONS’s head of housing market indices.
Mortgage rates in the United Kingdom reached a 15-year high last month as a result of the Bank of England’s string of interest-rate hikes to combat inflation, which has caused demand to plunge.