Asking rents are 2.6% higher now than in Q1 2021 and 6.2% higher than this time last year, the biggest quarterly and annual jumps ever recorded by Rightmove.
London is the only region with rents lower than this time last year, though rents in the capital have increased this quarter for the first time since before the pandemic, rising by 1.5% in Q2 compared to Q1.
Asking rents in city centres around Britain are starting to recover, with eight out of 10 of some of the biggest city centres seeing higher rents than in June 2020.
In Nottingham city centre, asking rents are up annually by 6.8%, and the next best performing city centre is Liverpool, where rents are up by 3.8%.
In contrast, rents in inner London fell 6.8%, and Edinburgh by 4.0%.
Areas that have seen the biggest rent rises over the past year include city suburbs, commuter towns and coastal locations.
Rochdale, Folkestone and Farnham have all seen asking rents jump by more than 25%.
Rental properties are finding a tenant quicker than ever before at an average of 21 days, with an annual drop of 36% in the number of available rental properties.
Rightmove’s Quarterly Rental Trends Tracker, based on over 470,000 properties, also found that the number of prospective tenants contacting agents about properties for rent is currently 10% higher than in July 2020 across Great Britain.
Tim Bannister, director of property data, said: “At the start of this year the impact that tenants leaving cities had on rents was clear to see, but with restrictions continuing to lift we’re seeing signs of the city centre comeback.
“As businesses settle into a more structured balance between home and office time, we expect this to continue for the rest of the year.
“Tenants across Britain are being faced with low stock and record rents in many areas, likely fuelled by some tenants signing longer leases last year and also perhaps by a rush of people who chose to move back in with family last year, who are now making plans to rent again and in many cases starting to think about their new daily commute.
“We’re also starting to see signs of London rents creeping up again, but they’re still lower than two years ago so it will take time.”
