home rental costs in London jumped at a record pace in February, adding almost £200 (S$342) a month to their payments, official figures showed in a report that highlights the scale of the capital’s housing crisis.

Private rents soared 10.6 per cent from a year ago in February, with the borough of Brent suffering the sharpest increase of any local area in the UK, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Wednesday (Mar 20). 

It was the second month of double-digit increases since the ONS began collecting the data. The average cost for tenants is above an average of £2,000 a month in London. That was even stronger than the 9 per cent increase in rents across the whole of the UK, which also was the fastest on record.

The figures show that tenants are still facing a squeeze on their finances even as the wider cost-of-living crisis begins to fade. It is likely to undermine already limited support for the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government among younger generations ahead of a general election expected later this year. 

The crisis hitting renters has been particularly acute in the capital, where limited supply is meeting surging demand. Research by the Centre for Cities earlier this week showed that London’s population has bounced back after a so-called “race for space” left people moving out of urban areas during the pandemic.

“This level of increase is not sustainable, and hampers first-time buyers aspiring to get on the housing ladder,” said Riz Malik, director at broker R3 Mortgages. “Given the government has all but abandoned first-time buyers while squeezing landlords, I fear there is worse to come for renters.”

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It was the first of an updated rental data release from the ONS that delved into trends in local areas. Rents in Brent increased by 20 per cent in February. Islington, Greenwich, Sutton and Westminster were among the London boroughs to suffer double-digit increases. 

“Brent saw the highest annual rental growth of all local areas and Melton saw the lowest, while rental prices were highest in Kensington & Chelsea and lowest in Dumfries & Galloway,” said Matt Corder, ONS deputy director for prices. 

The ONS also said that house prices were down 0.6 per cent in the 12 months to January to £282,000, the smallest annual fall since August. Prices were up 0.5 per cent compared to December.

The figures confirmed more timely data from lenders Nationwide Building Society and Halifax, which showed prices rising as activity in the housing market thawed. Bloomberg