Rents are set to jump 10.3% to £85.6bn this year, data from Hamptons shows, marking the biggest annual rise on record. 

The £8bn lift in the collective accommodation costs paid by tenants over the last year, mean that renters will pay more than double the £40.3bn their bills came to in 2010, says the property agent. 

Tenant costs have jumped as housing supply is constrained, while landlords have upped rents to cope with higher interest rates that have lifted from 0.1% in December 2021 to currently stand at 5.25%. 

The report also points out that the number of households renting has increased by 25%, or 1.1 million, since 2010 as younger renters take longer to save deposits to move them onto the housing ladder. 

In London, tenants paid a record £32.1bn in rent this year, up 11.8% — to £2,425 per calendar month — on a year ago.

This means the capital’s total rent bill is higher than the North of England, Midlands, Wales and Scotland combined, at £29.4bn. 

The average rent on a newly let UK home rose to £1,348 per calendar month in November, up 10.2% on a year ago. 

“This marked the seventh double-digit increase over the last 12 months and the strongest annual rate of growth recorded in any November since our records began in 2014,” says the study. 

But it adds: “Rental growth across Great Britain continued to cool a little from its 12% peak in August.  

“Seven of the 11 regions in Great Britain saw the pace of rental growth slow last month. Scotland and the South East saw the biggest monthly slowdown.  

“Even so, rental growth has not decelerated as much as we expected given landlords’ rising costs and a lack of homes available to rent.” 

Hamptons head of research Aneisha Beveridge adds: “While over the last 12 months the rent bill has increased because of record-breaking rental growth, longer-term it’s mostly risen as a result of more households renting.”