At last some good news! Rental house prices are coming down

Parents: did you think you’d see an end to K‑pop blasting out of Bluetooth speakers, monosyllabic communication and clothes/shoes/bags cluttering up the hallway, stairs, lounge or wherever else they can be slung? Best reassess that, because the kids are staying put. Hamptons, the estate agent, cites this as a reason for the first fall in its rental index since it began in 2011.

Newly agreed rents dipped by 0.7 per cent across Britain in 2025, with five of its 11 regions recording declines – compared with none at the end of 2024.

London, where the property market has been sluggish after years in which the outer limits of affordability have been tested – and then tested again – recorded the biggest fall. The 2.7 per cent reduction is equivalent to £63 a month, enough to make a decent dent in the food bill. It was joined by the South East (‑1 per cent), the East Midlands (‑0.2 per cent), Yorkshire and the Humber (‑1.4 per cent) and Wales (‑0.8 per cent).

The data chimes with other surveys. Zoopla found a 2.2 per cent rise for the year to December, but that was the smallest increase in four years; the property website also said demand for rental homes fell by a fifth.

This trend isn’t solely driven by the kids staying home. Improved mortgage deals and rising incomes have encouraged more first‑time buyers to take the plunge. If you can, it is better – and cheaper – to buy than to rent: you pay your own mortgage costs, whereas renting means covering the landlord’s mortgage, their (rising) taxes, ancillary costs and profit margin.

The University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory also points out that net migration fell “sharply in 2024 and 2025”. Immigrants inevitably rent when they first arrive, so that decline has an effect on demand.

Still, the finding that a rising number of adult offspring are staying at home is hardly surprising given the scale of increases in accommodation costs in recent years – particularly in former hotspots such as London and the South East, where rents remain so high that saving for a deposit is almost impossible even after this year’s decline.

If parents are willing, staying put makes sense – especially if it helps young adults build the nest egg needed to buy a property.

There will always be those who grumble that this adds to the cosseting of a spoiled TikTok generation, incapable of rising to the challenges of adult life. But the arrangement is commonplace in parts of the world where adulthood hits like a mallet and goes hand in hand with hard labour people in the developed world would baulk at, regardless of generation.

In theory, it also helps those who don’t have this option: they benefit from cheaper rents. Unfortunately for them, those lower rents are unlikely to last.

Hamptons also found a fall in the number of properties being made available to rent. Falling yields and rising costs will encourage landlords to walk away – and the Renters’ Rights Act could exacerbate the trend.

The Act was undoubtedly well‑intentioned and some reforms were necessary. Under the old regime it was often impossible to make a home of privately rented accommodation: landlords could pull the rug out from tenants on a whim at the end of a short‑term tenancy.

Successive governments argued that tenants would benefit from larger, more professional landlords in it for the long haul. They used that argument to justify higher taxes. But chasing out smaller hobbyists – those who might use a rental flat or two to save for a pension – only reduces the number of available properties.

The long‑term result will be higher prices: as the supply of rental properties falls, those remaining will have the power to pass on extra costs.

The ultimate losers are tenants. That, in turn, further incentivises staying at home – if you can.

The obvious solution is the same one that would ease shortages and inflated prices in the buy‑to‑own market, and address the desperate shortage of social rents: Build. More. Homes.

I hate to sound like a scratched piece of vinyl on this subject, but it is true. The construction sector has endured a 12‑month decline – a problem that needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

In the meantime, parents will have to get used to their adult children sticking around, potentially for years. For some, that might just mean learning to love K‑pop.