Rental prices, trends Q4 2020 – Place Design Scotland

AVERAGE rent in Edinburgh dropped by ten per cent during the last three months of 2020, according to figures released by the property website, Rightmove.

Says Rightmove, of its study covering ten UK cities: “Inner London has been hardest hit, with average asking rents falling annually by 12.4 per cent, followed by Edinburgh city centre down ten per cent and Manchester city centre down 5.3 per cent.”

The average rent during Q4 2020 in Edinburgh was £1,124.

Meanwhile, Glasgow’s average rent during Q4 2020 dropped by 2.5 per cent, to £894.

“The number of rental properties on Rightmove more than doubled in some city centres, with the biggest jumps in Leeds (+179 per cent), Inner London (+139 per cent) and Nottingham (+139 per cent).”

Adds Rightmove: “In all of the cities, there has been a shift upwards in the number of tenants who currently live in a city enquiring about properties outside of that city, as the popularity of a quieter life and more space driven by [the] lockdown [response to the COVID-19 pandemic] continues.

“The biggest changes are in Inner London and Edinburgh. In Inner London, 53 per cent of renters living there enquired about a property outside the city, up from 45 per cent in the same period in 2019. In Edinburgh, the number of renters enquiring about leaving the city has risen from 29 per cent to 37 per cent.”

A summary table reads as follows:

Inner London – £2,219 (average asking rent per calendar month, Q4 2020), -12.4 per cent (annual change), +139 per cent (annual change in rental stock)

Edinburgh – £1,124, -10 per cent, +109 per cent

Manchester – £1,022, -5.3 per cent, +109 per cent

Birmingham – £883, -4.6 per cent, +66 per cent

Leeds – £811, -4.4 per cent, +179 per cent

Glasgow – £894, -2.5 per cent, +72 per cent

Nottingham – £921, -0.2 per cent, +139 per cent

Newcastle – £915, -0.2 per cent, +51 per cent

Liverpool – £801, +2 per cent, +86 per cent

Bristol – £1,271, +2 per cent, +93 per cent

Source: Rightmove rental price tracker, published January 27 2020 – here.