Average monthly residential rents in the Greater Belfast area rose to £564pcm in Q2 2010, up from £544pcm in Q1 which represents a quarterly increase of 3.7%.

This more positive recent trend follows two previous quarters with a downward trend and an annual drop of 6.6% in achieved rents compared to Q2 2009 when average rents were £604pcm.

Dan Cookson from Citylets said: “Agents are finding it increasingly difficult to find good quality property to rent as so many tenants are extending their tenancies rather than moving on to the property owning ladder.”

Citylets say that the quarterly upturn is also encouraging when considering the volume of new rental property that has come on to the market in the last two years as a result of the dramatic downturn in the sales market.

The most current house price data for Northern Ireland from the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) for May 2010 reports an average mix adjusted price of £168,484 which is down 34.9% from the peak seen in Aug 2007.

Time to let (TTL) - another key indicator of demand has also improved and currently stands at 48 days in Belfast which is 9 days less than in 2009. This is significantly better than TTL figures of 73 days seen in Q1 2009.

Landlords are also seeing that the proportion of properties taking longer than 4 weeks to let has now come down from 72% in Q2 2009 to 60% in Q2 2010.