Buy to let rents are stagnating across most of the country and even falling in London, the latest official statistics show.

The rate of rent increases has slumped in the UK since November 2015.

Then, the average annual rate was rising at 2.7%.

Now, the figure has fallen to 1.4%, according to the latest Private Housing Rental Prices Index from the Office of National Statistics.

In real terms, says the ONS, a renter paying £500 a month to a buy to let landlord a year ago now pays £507 a month.

ONS researchers say the slowdown is driven by falling rents in the capital.

London rents have increased by 0.6% in the past 12 months, down from 0.8% last year and the lowest rate of annual rental growth in the capital since October 2010.

For the rest of the country, rents have increased by 1.4% in England and Wales, but just 0.2% in Scotland.

England and Wales have experienced opposing fortunes – the rate is the lowest in England since September 2014, but the highest in Wales since July 2016.

Rents were last at their highest in England in February 2012, when the were rising at a rate of 2.8%.

In England, the biggest annual rent increase was in the East Midlands (2.7%), which fell from 2.9% in the year to October.

Other increases were in the South East, where rents were rising at 2.3%, down from 2.4% the previous month. The East and South West were unchanged at 2.1%, while the West Midlands was up 0.1% to 1.8%.

Rents were down 0.2% to 0% in the North East, while London was 0.6%, down from 0.8%; the North West stayed at 1.3%, and Yorkshire and The Humber slipped to 1.6% from 1.7.

View the latest ONS rent stats online