Average rents in London have fallen for two consecutive months by nearly 4%, to an average of £1,158 per month, according to the latest HomeLet Rental Index.

However, despite the drop in rents, the cost of living in a rented home in London is nearly 9% higher than the same time last year, and up by a 23% since October 2009.

The average cost of renting a home in the UK also reduced from September to October by 2.5% to £763 per month, which is still over 4% higher than the same time last year. Therefore even though the amount has lowered, tenants are still paying more than last year. This is also shown through another statistic in the HomeLet Rental Index indicating tenants’ average income dropped over the past month by 0.6%.

Only two of the 11 UK regions saw an increase in average rental amounts from October to September. Wales and East Anglia saw average rents go up by 3.4% and 1% respectively. Scotland fared the worse after seeing its average rental cost drop by 7.5% to £547.

John Boyle, Managing Director of HomeLet, said: “We do normally see a seasonal dip in actual rental prices at this time of year due to the amount of students being referenced for higher value shared properties.

“At a first glance the drop in rents would appear to be good news for tenants, however, when we see how expensive it is to live in a rented property compared to last year, we can see how demand for homes has increased over the year.

“With average rents rising at a much higher rate than average incomes, budgets are really being stretched, and if rental amounts increase as much in early 2012 as they have done in previous years, then renting may become unaffordable for an increasing number of people, particularly in London.”