June 13, 2011 | Author

Author Alec Hanson

The RICS Residential Lettings Survey is released each quarter, and the Q1 results show strong demand and limited supply.

This obviously has helped to firm up rents and rentals, with rents continueing to grow.

The balance* of surveyors believing a rise in rents was down from last quarter from 37 to 33. However this still represents 33% more surveyors seeing increased rather decreasing prices.

Instructions

The balance of new landlord instructions has picked up considerably though with the first positive balance of 6% for some time, the last year has seen negative balances through out.

Indeed this is the first time since the three months leading to April 2009.

Regional Breakdown

Regionally things can be quite different. Although for past rents the regional picture is all positive, it does vary widely from 80% in London to 20% in Scotland, South West and Eastern.

A similar picture is seen for rental expectations with positive views across the country, but especially for London.

For more information visit: http://www.rics.org/site/scripts/download_info.aspx?downloadID=7403&fileID=9766

* Balance = Percentage of surveyors reporting a rise in a variable minus percentage reporting a fall (eg if 50% report a rise, 30% report no change, and 20% report a fall, the balance is 30% = 50% – 20%)