TENANTS should brace themselves for soaring rents in the New Year, a leading property association has warned.

The National Association of Property Buyers predict rents could rise by around 4% in January, and claim the surge is being driven because the stock of available homes to rent is at a five-year low.

Spokesman Jonathan Rolande said: “Looking ahead to January, a 4% increase in rents seems the likely figure. This will further add to the unaffordability faced by many tenants. What’s driving this? Well many landlords have suffered recently with changes to legislation, a general rise in agent costs following the tenant fee ban, tax increases and of course a hike in mortgage rates following the failed Truss Budget. But, more notability, the stock of rental properties is now at lowest we’ve seen since 2017. Market forces are therefore pushing up rents.”

Mr Rolande, the co-founder of House Buy Fast, continued: “Most increases are not being paid for with increased earnings, but by tenants having to lower their expectations. Many, for example, are renting an inferior property than they envisaged for the same rent, or moving to cheaper locations or taking in lodgers. We’ve seen a landlord exodus in recent months, and this only looks set to continue. The recent rental restrictions in Wales, and talk of rent control in London risks ‘spooking’ the market and further reducing the number of landlords.”

Commenting on the impact the rental situation is now having on tenants and landlords, he added: “The ‘us versus them’ aspect of landlord and tenant debate is unhelpful. Usually portrayed as the bad guys, many landlords are under significant pressures with 22% reporting that stress has caused mental health issues. Tenants rightly feel in a vulnerable position. The current situation is not working well.”

Mr Rolande’s comments come after new figures revealed the average rent in Britain has soared to more than £1,200 a month for the first time on record.

Typical values reached £1,204 a month, according to Hamptons estate agents’ figures for October. It is a rise of £80 a month or 7.1 per cent higher than a year ago.

It means tenants are having to fork out an extra £960 a year in rent compared to this time last year. The rapid rental growth means these households are now spending 44 per cent of their post-tax income on rent, the highest share since records began in 2010. The Hamptons figures revealed that average rents passed the £1,100 mark back in September 2021.

This was after they crossed the £1,000 milestone back in June 2019, before dipping during the pandemic and re-passing that point in August 2020.

So far this year, average rents in five regions have moved into a new £100 price bracket.

Greater London was the latest, with rents passing £2,100 a month for the first time in October this year.

It was driven by rents in inner London reaching a new record high of £2,863 a month in October, £1 a month more than when rents in London’s priciest postcodes previously peaked in October 2019.

It means that rents in every area of the country are now above where they were at the beginning of the pandemic.

Since January 2020, just before the start of the pandemic, rents have risen 19 per cent across Britain.

It is the equivalent of an additional £2,351 a year in rent, a significant sum of money to find amid the cost of living crisis.

Hamptons said there had been more rental growth since the beginning of Covid than for at least eight years prior.