Rents rocket as demand in Cardiff outstrip available homes

A 27-year-old who failed to secure a room despite offering nearly £5,000 of rent up front has described Cardiff's renting market as "demoralising".

It comes as one estate agent said a three bedroom £1,050-a-month terraced house received 126 enquiries.

They said that amount of interest is now "quite common" in the city.

Online property market Rightmove suggests rental costs in Wales are rising quicker than anywhere in the UK outside of London.

One housing body said the pandemic and cost of living crisis have put a "steroid injection" into an already growing rental housing shortage.

Higher interest rates, inflation, a lack of supply and landlords pulling out of the market due to new legislation are all given as reasons for higher demand in the rental market.

Rightmove figures also show that the average rent for a Cardiff property between July and September this year was £1,041, up from £870 at the same time last year. That is an increase of 19.6%.

Across Wales, the company's figures suggest the average cost of a rental property is £974 - up 15% from last year.

Enfys Kennard-Smith, a non-binary person who lives in Newport, is trying to move to Cardiff.

The 27-year-old said: "I've been attacked a few times for wearing nail polish, just in broad daylight, [and] had people shouting homophobic, transphobic slurs at me."

They hope to move to Cardiff because it's "safer", but the process of finding a place has been "demoralising".

They've been looking on and off for more than a year and there have been "lots of close calls", they said.

"The last one was a room in a shared house where there was a bidding process for the room. I think up against five other people.

"It said minimum bid £400 a month and then you give your bids. I said I'd pay £400 a month for 12 months up front or £450 for six months up front and I was still out bid."

Enfys fears increasing inflation and interest rates will mean fewer available properties.

"I'm going to keep trying but I don't hold out too much hope," they said.

"I'm very lucky to be able to have a family that's supportive and I can stay with."

Jon Hooper-Nash, director of lettings at estate agents Jeffrey Ross, has described the Cardiff rental market as "bonkers".

He added: "I've never known it to be as busy as it is at the moment.

"We've never seen so many people desperate for a rental property which we simply don't have half the time.

"We are really struggling to cater for the demand."

He said there were 126 enquiries about one house in the city and "that's quite common", he explained.

"We've had numbers as high as up to 250 on one property that we rented out."

A new law in Wales coming into force from December will give greater protection to tenants.

But some argue the Renting Homes Wales Act will make things more difficult and complicated for landlords, and is leading to some pulling out of the rental market.

The Chartered Institute of Housing Cymru said the cost of many properties in the private rental sector will be too high due to high demand.

Director Matt Dicks said: "There is a chronic shortage of homes at social and affordable rent as well, so worryingly we may well see a spike in homelessness as a result."

He added: "Ultimately, this is the historic undersupply of social and affordable housing catching up with us.

"More affordable housing would better insulate us against the unforeseen market trends that we are currently experiencing.

Matt Downie, Chief Executive of Crisis charity said many people across Wales are finding themselves in "extremely difficult housing situations".

He added: "Everyone needs a safe place to call home, but homelessness levels in Wales are still unacceptably high.

"Over the past year more than 11,700 people in Wales were recorded as homeless. "