London leads decline in void periods for landlords 

Research by leading rental portal, Rentd, has revealed that the cost suffered by the nation’s landlords as a result of rental void periods has fallen in all but two regions, as growing demand continues to drive a post-pandemic rental market revival. 

Rentd analysed the average void period seen across each region of the rental market so far in 2022, how this has changed since the previous year and what it means for the nation’s landlords based on the rental cost incurred due to lost rent. 

The research shows that across England, the average void period currently sits at 20 days, down from 25 days at the start of 2021. 

At the same time, the average rent across England has climbed from £848 per month (£28 per day) to £911(£30 per day) in the last year, meaning that the cost of these rental void periods is now higher. Despite this, Rentd’s analysis shows that the average void period across England has actually fallen from £697 to £599 – a decline of £98. 

London has seen the largest decline with the average rental void period falling from a cost of £1,285 at the start of 2021, to £984 in 2022. That said, while this £301 decline is the largest of all regions in England, the capital’s rental void periods also remain the most costly to landlords. 

Yorkshire and the Humber has also seen a sizeable reduction, with the cost of the average void period reducing by £219 year on year, along with the North East (-£173) and the West Midlands (-£165).

The cost incurred by landlords as a result of the average void period has also fallen across the South East (-£87), East of England (-£62) and East Midlands (-£8).

Just two regions have seen this unsavoury rental market metric move in the opposite direction. In the North West the average cost of a rental void period has increased by 6%, while the South West has seen the largest increase at £211. 

Founder and CEO of Rentd, Ahmed Gamal, commented: 

“The impact of the pandemic was quite profound in many areas of the rental market and particularly across major cities, where dwindling levels of tenant demand saw rental expectations slashed simply to secure a tenant and reduce the long void periods that were building between agreements. 

However, with Covid restrictions now behind us and a return to the workplace in full swing, we’ve seen tenant demand once again return to the rental market on all fronts and this has started to cultivate signs of a rental market revival across the board. 

The previous surplus of rental stock is now starting to vanish and as a result rental values are climbing from the pandemic depths to which they had previously slumped. Despite this increase in rental values, the cost of the average void period has also dropped as landlords are now finding they can re-let their property at a much quicker rate than was previously possible.”

Average cost of void period based on the average daily rental value in each region (HomeLet) multiplied by the number of days in the average void period and compared to the same statistics for the previous year.