Last year private tenants in Great Britain paid £59.1bn on rent, which was £1.9bn less than in 2017, according to Hamptons International Monthly Lettings Index – January 2019.

This is the first annual fall in over 10 years and Hamptons says that the fall has been driven by a drop in the number of households renting and rental growth stagnating. However, over the last 10 years the total rent bill has increased by £29.9bn in Great Britain. During this period the number of households privately renting has grown by 1.7m (+52%), meanwhile rents have increased by 12.4%.

Nine out of 11 regions in Great Britain saw a fall in their total rent bill over the last year; the East Midlands (£130m) and the North East (£60m) were the only regions to see a rise. London saw the biggest drop off in the total amount of rent paid by tenants. Tenants in the capital paid £20.6bn in rent in 2018, £620m less than in 2017.

However, over the last 10 years the rental bill increased in every region. The biggest rise in the amount of rent paid by tenants was in London where the total rental bill grew by £10.53bn over the 10-year period. After London, tenants in the South East (£14.19bn) and the East (£3.05bn) saw their rental bills increase the most. Meanwhile Wales saw the smallest rise in the total amount of rent paid by tenants over the last decade, up £70m.