What’s Really Happening to Rents?

Are rents rising more slowly than house prices?  That’s what the figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest. Indeed, the ONS’s rental index suggests average rents have been rising below the rate of consumer price inflation, implying that they are becoming more affordable in real terms, not less. These figures were much cited when Ed Miliband proposed a mild form of rent control earlier this year. Critics suggested the Labour leader was, thus, addressing a non-existent problem. But HomeLet, which produces its own index of rent increases, has, for some time now, been reporting figures that tell a very different story. Read more on the Independent website.