It’s been a busy summer across the buy-to-let marketplace. An array of landlords remain well placed to benefit from some highly favourable conditions as competition heats up across the lending arena, rental income is strong and a lack of good quality stock continues to fuel demand. Another important factor within this is improving rental voids and this trend was evident in recent data from Goodlord.

This outlined that the North West saw the biggest month-on-month decrease in void periods in August, with its average dropping from 20 days in July to 18 in August – a decrease of 10%. London and the East Midlands also saw their average void period reduce in August, by one day.

The data also highlighted that rents continue to climb in England, bringing the average rent across the country to £1,097.41 – an increase of 3.5% on last month’s already record-breaking figure for the Goodlord Rental Index of £1,060.50. In the South East, the average monthly rent hit £1,293 in August, up 14% from £1,137.29 in July. Other areas to see significant shifts were the East Midlands, where the average monthly rent is now £946.89 – a month-on-month increase of 7% – and London, where the average monthly rent increased by 6% from £1,631.10 in July to £1,725.77 in August.

In addition, average tenant income decreased by 6% in August, which means the average tenant in England is now earning £25,264. Excluding London, the average tenant income was found to be £23,566.

With rental demand showing no signs of slowing anytime soon, we fully expect a busy final few months of 2021 as an increasing number of landlords look to take tap into this buoyant market.