The number of tenants fleeing high rents in London has reached a peak of 65,000 in the past year, according to research by letting agents.
Three out of four move to another rented home which is an average 89 miles away from the capital, with many moving to the Midlands and North.
Many seem to be seeking cheaper rents as those in London increased by 1.1% year-on-year to the end of September, says the data from Countrywide, one of the country’s largest letting agencies.
London tenants now pay an average rent of £989 a month.
The recent trend is a reversal of a decade ago when 51% of tenants leaving London bought a home of their own.
Although many tenants move up to 100 miles, the favourite destinations are towns around the M25, such as Slough.
The top place to buy for tenants who were renting in London is Tandridge, Surrey.
They buy a home for an average £388,000.
Johnny Morris, research director at Countrywide, said:
“For people in their 30s leaving London is something of a rite of passage. But as the number of those renting has grown the move out of London is increasingly likely to be in the rental market. A decade ago most tenants moving out of the capital did so to buy. But since 2007 leaving London to carry on renting somewhere else has become more typical”.
“Rental price growth continues to be supported by the low number of landlord purchases, particularly across the south of England. The number of rental homes on the market has continued to drop with more southern based landlords looking northwards in search of better yields and lower stamp duty bills. Conversely northern England has seen double digit increases in the number of homes on the market which is likely to temper rental growth.”
