LONDON, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Regional hubs in the UK has outpaced London in rent growth as millennials daunted by rising living costs are leaving the capital at the highest rate for more than a decade, a report said on Friday.
While rent grew at 0.58 percent year on year in London, it increased by 2.54 percent in Leeds, 2.05 percent in Birmingham and 1.91 percent in Manchester, whose annual growth in 2018 significantly exceeds the UK average, according to the National Rent Review by the buy-to-let mortgage lender Landbay.
The average monthly UK rent is currently 1,212 pounds, a rise of 10 pounds since the start of the year. When London is excluded, rents sit at 769 pounds, up from 761 pounds since the beginning of 2018, the report showed.
"London's rent growth is dwarfed by cities such as Leeds and Manchester. This is being fueled by the capital's millennial exodus as countless young professionals realize there is more to life than London," said John Goodall, CEO and co-founder of Landbay.
Quoting a recent study from the Centre for London, the report said since 2012 London has lost nearly half a million inhabitants to net internal migration, along with millennials leaving the capital at the highest rate in almost a decade.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics show a 16 percent increase in new businesses opening in the North West compared to a 14 percent increase in the businesses ceasing to trade in London.
In Birmingham and Leeds, new offices are going up at a considerable rate and billions have been spent on shopping and leisure centers. More recently, HSBC announced it would move 1,000 jobs to Birmingham by January 2019, the report said.
Despite the looming uncertainty of Brexit, 2018 has continued to see growth in rental demand, as a direct result of the 350,000 additional people in work at the end of November, compared to the same point last year, according to the report.
"One side effect of (Brexit) perhaps will be that people delay decisions to purchase a house and thus rent until the future is a little more certain," it said. (One pound is currently equal to 1.25 U.S. dollars)
