AND news - June 2009
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Asking rents begin to rise as recovery in the UK Rental Market continues
Jobsite launch Jobs by Twitter
Asking Rents Begin To Rise As Recovery In The UK Rental Market Continues
23rd June 2009
According to FindaProperty.com, June 2009 saw the first increases in average asking rents in the UK since August 2008, providing further evidence that the rental market is experiencing a recovery. The rise of 0.5% month-on-month, equivalent to a £4 pcm increase on the average rent, was admittedly modest; however, this month’s price increase continues the trend of gradual improvement recorded over the past quarter – in April, rental prices fell by 1% while in May there was no change in prices.
Rising asking rents have also been accompanied by a decline in supply levels of 0.4% in June 2009. This is the first time that supply has fallen since data was first collected for the Rental Index in January 2008.
A steady and continued fall in supply over a sustained period would help bring increased tenant competition into the market once again and would lead to further upward pressure on rents. However, supply has a long way to fall before it reaches the levels seen in 2008, and the number of properties available to rent in June 2009 was still 191% higher than the same time last year.
In recent months, the Rental Index has tracked a significant divergence in the performance of houses and flats, and that trend continues this month. Houses remain at the forefront of the recovery, with supply levels declining for the fourth consecutive month, and at a faster pace.
The supply of houses fell by 3.8% month-on-month in June 2009, the largest monthly fall since January 2008. Asking rents for houses rose by 1.2% month-on-month, pushing the average rent up to £858 pcm. This was the second consecutive month of rising prices.
The recent recovery in the house market has been driven by larger properties but there is evidence that the trend is gradually cascading downwards to smaller properties. Rental prices for houses with five or more bedrooms have risen for four consecutive months, whilst rents for four bedroom houses have increased over the past two months. Three bedroom houses are now also registering asking rent increases and were up by 0.3% in June.
In stark contrast to houses, the flat market continues to record rising levels of supply and falling rental values. Asking rents for flats declined for the 14th month out of 15, with rents falling by 0.8% month-on-month. Asking rents for flats are now 5.8% (£46 pcm) lower than June 2008.
Supply levels have also increased for the eighth consecutive month. However, an early sign of recovery in this market sector may be evident in the slowdown in the rate at which flats are coming on to the market.
Jobsite launch Jobs by Twitter
16th June 2009
Jobsite today announce the launch of their Jobs by Twitter service to help make job hunting easier for Twitter’s thousands of UK users. Unlike many other jobs offerings currently on Twitter, Jobsite’s service (http://twitter.com/jobsitejobs) provides users with personal tweets listing only relevant jobs to them.
Keith Potts, Jobsite CEO, comments; ‘As a Twitter user I know how frustrating it is to get an endless stream of irrelevant jobs constantly being sent to you. This is why we’ve developed our service on Twitter, to enable users to select their own criteria for the jobs they want to receive, including location and salary. They can also choose the frequency that they want to receive new jobs, which will always be sent to them as private tweets.’
Sending jobs via the direct message function on Twitter ensures that the candidates’ job hunting remains private and can’t be seen by their followers. It also means they will only get the relevant jobs they want and won’t be bothered by vacancies signed up to by another user.
Twitter has become a social networking phenomenon, with 17 million logging on to the site between March and April 2009 – an increase of 83% on the previous month[1]. The site offers a real time messaging service with users limited to 140 characters in each tweet. It also allows you to follow people or topics of interest. As well as providing jobs, Jobsite’s new service on Twitter also includes useful advice tweets to help followers with their job hunt.
Potts continues; ‘An integral part of Jobsite’s success is our continued innovation and ability to develop our offering in line with new technology. With so many users actively engaging with Twitter it is an ideal new platform for us to help those looking for a new job get one quickly and easily via our award winning technology. Reaching out to where new candidates are, rather than waiting for them to come to us, is also key in ensuring the widest possible reach for our clients’ vacancies.’
To see how Jobsite’s Jobs by Twitter service works follow Jobsitejobs: http://twitter.com/jobsitejobs