The flow of new rental properties coming on to the market has fallen at the fastest rate since the first Covid lockdown five years ago, according to research by Britain’s property surveyors.
Although the demand for properties is steady, there are fewer new rentals from landlords coming available, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) found.
The July 2025 Rics Residential Market Survey showed a “firmly negative trend” in landlords making their properties available for rent, the weakest reading since April 2020.
With the lack of fresh supply in the pipeline, rental prices are expected to rise over the next three months, according to the report, which takes a monthly “sentiment survey” of chartered surveyors.
The expected rise comes after another report this week found the average private rents in Great Britain had fallen marginally for the first time in five years.
The estate agent Hamptons said lower mortgage rates had helped to take some heat out of the market and that the average rent on a newly let property fell by 0.2% in July compared with a year earlier.
The Rics report also said new inquiries from homebuyers had fallen in July, suggesting a softening in demand compared with earlier in the summer. In June, most of those surveyed said there had been a rise in fresh inquiries.
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Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at Rics, said the flatter tone of the latest report showed the market was facing challenges. Last week, the Bank of England voted for a fifth cut in interest rates in a year, reducing the cost of borrowing to 4% amid concerns about the strength of the UK economy.
“Although interest rates were lowered at the latest Bank of England meeting, the split vote has raised doubts about both the timing and extent of further reductions,” Rubinsohn said.
“Meanwhile, uncertainty about the potential contents of the chancellor’s autumn budget is also raising some concerns. Against this backdrop, respondents continue to report that the market remains particularly price sensitive at the present time.”
The estate agent Knight Frank said the renters’ rights bill, which is due to come into force next year and is aimed at reforming the sector, has meant landlords were now increasingly looking to sell.
“[Shrinking supply] is one unintended consequence of the forthcoming renters’ rights bill, which could make it more onerous to regain possession of a property and raises the risk of void periods,” said Tom Bill, head of residential research.
Sarah Coles, head of personal finance at the investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown, said the Rics survey showed “the era of runaway rents isn’t over yet” as more people were now chasing fewer homes. One of its recent surveys found that the average renting household had just £62 left at the end of the month.
