Buy to let rents are stagnating with no movement since April, according to the latest official statistics.
Private renters saw rents maintain their 1% rise in the year to June 30.
Within the UK, rents in England were up 1%, while Wales saw an increase of 1.1% and Scotland, growth was just 0.6%.
In London, rents were down 0.2% in the year, with no change in the rate since May, says the latest Index of Private Housing Rental Prices from the Office of National Statistics.
The study shows that the rate of private rent increases has slowed across the country since December 2015.
A 1% increase means a property renting out for £500 a month in June 2017 now commands a rent of £505 a month.
“This slowdown in the growth in private rental prices in Great Britain is driven mainly by a slowdown in London over the same period,” says the ONS.
“Between January 2011 and June 2018, private rental prices in Great Britain increased by 15.9%. This was strongly driven by growth in private rents in London. When London is excluded from these figures, private rents increased by 12.5% over the same period.”
In England, the region with the largest annual rent increase was the East Midlands at 2.8%, which was down from 2.9% in May, followed by the South West (2.1% up from 2.0%).
Outside London, the lowest increase was in the North East at 0.2%, up from 0.1% in May.
The study also reports two other yardsticks for rents.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors says their research suggests tenant demand has stayed flat for five months in a row and that fewer buy to let homes are coming to the market.
The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) has found more private rented homes are available to rent than in previous months, but too few are on the market.
