Morgan Newfield - British Rental Prices Fall

TAIPEI CITY, Taiwan, April 27, 2018 (Newswire.com) - Morgan Newfield says rental prices for real estate in the UK dropped for the first time in 6 years this past quarter, continuing a downward trend which started after the 2016 Brexit referendum when the country voted to leave the European Union.

According to Morgan Newfield analysts, rental prices were an average of 0.5 percent lower in the first quarter of 2018 than they were in the last quarter of last year.

Morgan Newfield stated that although the period from January to March this year saw the first negative rent growth in 6 years, the current trend likely started around the time of the 2016 Brexit vote and was probably linked to the result of that referendum.

Widespread economic uncertainty is a strong influence and it seems to have created a dent in demand for rental properties in the UK as a smaller number of people are in favor of moving and landlords are unable to increase rental prices.

If the negative growth trend were to continue into the second quarter of this year, it would be the first yearly decrease in 9 years.

While rental prices fell by 1.4 percent in London in the first three months of this year, the most significant drop was in Northern Ireland where rental prices fell by 3.1 percent.

A gauge of private rentals put together by the Office for National Statistics revealed that rental growth in the year leading up to last month increased by only 1.1 percent. Morgan Newfield analysts say that this was less than half the rate of growth reported before the Brexit referendum.

Source: Morgan Newfield