The rental hotspots in England have been revealed, with West Sussex leading the way.

New research by Zero Deposit found that West Sussex had 51% of all rental listings securing a tenant during the first three months of this year.

It is followed by Suffolk at 49.1%, Wiltshire at 49% and the Isle of Wight at 48.5%.

Meanwhile, 46% of rental listings in Rutland secured a tenant during the same period, and 45.9% in Somerset.

By contrast, demand was at its lowest in West Yorkshire at just 14.1%, Nottinghamshire at 15.4% and South Yorkshire at 17.3%.

Demand and supply imbalance

Sam Reynolds, of Zero Deposit, said: “The market continues to suffer from a severe imbalance between supply and demand with multiple tenants wrestling over every single property that becomes available.

“Now that we’re heading into Spring and Summer, typically the market’s busiest periods, demand pressures are only going to get worse as more and more tenants look to make their next move.

“We are seeing the results of stubbornly high house prices forcing more people to postpone their first purchases and therefore rent for longer than ever before, and also a constant lack of new supply to the rental market, particularly outside of our major cities.

“The Government appears to be pushing to address supply issues with its ambitious new homes targets which, if met, can create more rental stock and more for-sale stock, thus helping ease prices in both markets.

“But with the introduction of the Renters' Rights Bill, we may be facing another obstacle as an increased number of landlords may choose to exit the sector due to the instability created by the bill.”

The research also found that tenant demand for rental homes grew 0.5% in England between the final quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year to 28.2%.

It is a drop of 3.5% since the first quarter of last year.

Zero Deposit analysed rental demand across each county in England based on the number of available rental properties that have already seen a let agreed as a proportion of total rental stock available.

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