Private sector rents jumped to a new record high of £816 a month across England and Wales in September, according to a lettings index.
Rents also hit regional records in London, the South East, the South West, and the East and West Midlands in September.
When compared with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rate of inflation since the start of 2010, rents across the country have increased by more than 10% in real terms over this period, the report said.
The findings follows figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) this week, which showed that house prices have also reached a new record high across the UK, standing at £284,000 on average in August.
Tenant arrears now represent 8.6% of all rent due, as of September, the report said. This is an improvement after a set back in August took the figure to 9.9%, although it is a deterioration compared with a year ago when 7.2% of rent due was in arrears.
The report is based on rents achieved on around 20,000 properties across England and Wales.
Steve Molloy owner of Belvoir Wirral says.
“Property is like any other commodity, if there is a shortage and there certainly is locally in the Wirral area, then the price increases. Most rents for current Tenants are remaining unchanged.
However, when a property now becomes available, we are asking and achieving higher rents than ever before”.
