It took 29 days on average to let a home in Great Britain this April, shows new data from Hamptons International.

This compares to 24 days in April 2019, and is the highest time recorded in Hamptons’ records, which stretch back to 2013.

On a regional basis, Wales was the toughest place for landlords to operate in on this measure, with the average time to let clocking in at 34 days. This was followed by the North East, the South East, and Yorkshire and the Humber, which all took 33 days apiece.

The quickest time to let was in the South West, where 25 days was the average.

Hamptons puts this firmly down to the lockdown. “Restrictions on movement throughout April meant that those homes available to rent took much longer to let than usual.

“Demand fell back as most tenants chose to stay put and extend their existing tenancies,” says head of research Aneisha Beveridge.

The estate agent also looked at the average rent of renewed tenancies. Here, the figures fell 1.1 per cent on the year, a fall mostly driven by Greater London, where the average rent fell 3.2 per cent, from £1,701 to £1,647.

Outside of the capital, the only other area where this figure fell was the South East. In fact, excluding London, the average rent of renewed tenancies went up across Great Britain – from £738 to £744 – a rise of 0.8 per cent.

Scotland saw the biggest growth, from £622 to £648.

Beveridge comments: “Rental growth continued to slow last month, with average rents on renewed tenancies in Great Britain falling for the second consecutive month. Uncertainty regarding household incomes has led to the fall in rents in London and the South East, where tenants’ incomes tend to be most stretched.

“While demand in the rental market dropped following the introduction of lockdown measures in March, the latest indicators show that it has now almost recovered to pre-lockdown levels.

“And given the changes to government advice on home moving announced last week, we expect activity in the rental market to return quickly.”