The Government has launched a service that enables landlords to see the rents being charged by other landlords in their area.

Its tool, which is provided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for the first time, shows average private rents in each borough and the average increase in rents within it over the past 12 months, as well as average rents across the region and the UK, for comparison purposes, along with graphs.

This information is particularly useful for landlords seeking a quick way to work out how competitive the rent they are charging is within an area, without having to trawl through the property portals.

LandlordZONE looked at the data for several areas including Lambeth, which features some of the highest private rents in England, where the average monthly rent is £2,119 per property, up nearly 9% or £169 a month year-on-year over the past 12 months.

In one of the cheapest places for rental property, Hull, the average rent is £573 per property a month, an increase of 6% or £34 a month over the past year.

Bedroom data

Usefully, the data also includes costs ‘per bedroom’ which can be used by HMO landlords to review their rents.

The service also includes house price data for each council which, together with the rental data, can be used to gain a thumbnail of local gross yields. For example, in Hull the average house price is £131,000, which means the average yield in the city is just shy of 6%.

The latest national index from the ONS shows that rents in the private sector have risen by 9% over the past 12 months, a figure the organisation describes as a ‘record high’.

Have a root around yourself!