Taylor Scott International News
London was among the many areas of England and Wales to see quarterly drops in the average deposit amounts needed by tenants at the end of 2014. The average deposit amount protected by mydeposits saw a 1.4% rise between the third and fourth quarter of 2014 but London saw a 2.6% drop equalling to a fall of £49 to a total of £1,811. It means that the average tenancy deposit protected by mydeposits now stands at £1,226, up £52 over the last year. The figures also show a difference of £1,244 between the average cost of deposits in the most expensive and cheapest regions in England and Wales. London stays at the top of the most expensive average deposit paid by tenants around the U.K with £1,811 on average being spent in the capital, which year on year is an increase of £79 or 4.6%. The quarterly contrasts between the north and west in the Midlands and up in the North makes for interesting reading. The East Midlands saw an 11% increase while the West Midlands saw a 5.3% fall. Meanwhile, in the North West there was a 3.9%) increase to £650 compared to the largest monetary drop in value in the North East who saw a fall of 31.6% to £567, the lowest overall across England and Wales. Wales also saw a big drop of 23% in deposit values taking their average total to £657. Deposits in the East of England dropped at the same pace as London at 2.6% for the quarter but saw the biggest increase across the UK throughout the year with a 6.2% rise to £1,021, the third highest behind the South East at £1,203 and London. ‘This the first cycle in which we’ve seen a steady quarter on quarter reduction to average deposit values in many parts of England and Wales. While it’s difficult to pinpoint an exact reason for this, it is most likely to be attributable to rental demand tailing off throughout December,’ said Eddie Hooker, chief executive officer of mydeposits. ‘This is because deposits are commonly set at between four to six week’s rents and landlords and agents are more likely to accept lower than advertised rents in December in order to avoid having vacant properties over the Christmas and New Year period and experiencing a void,’ he explained. ‘Whilst this is good news, 2015 is going to be a big year for housing with the General Election some five months away. We’ve already seen government wide support for the new deposits loan scheme that is set to benefit thousands of tenants and go a long way to creating a better private rented sector for all,’ he added. Taylor Scott International
Taylor Scott International, Taylor Scott
