Residential Lettings Market - Lettings Research
Contact a Rent Officer to discuss or contribute to our research
VOA Rent Officers research the private residential lettings market in England as part of our statutory functions. Our work supports the provision of Housing Benefit under the Local Housing Allowance and Local Reference Rent schemes as well as providing analysis for other areas of housing policy.
We currently maintain a unique database of around half a million private lettings from over 12,000 sources, representative of the market across the previous 12 months.
Rent Officer lettings information
- is information about tenancies in the private rented sector
- includes the rent that a tenant has agreed to pay and other information such as address, property type, condition, and number of bedrooms and living rooms (we do not include tenancies where the tenant intended to claim housing benefit)
- sources include estate and letting agents, private landlords, corporate landlords, Registered Social Landlords, tenants, Housing Benefit departments, and Universities and Colleges
- currently includes over 500,000 records of open market private rents achieved in the previous 12 months
- provides a representative sample of the market across all 152 Broad Rental Market Areas in England used to determine Local Housing Allowances
- is held on a secure computer database and complies with the Data Protection Act 1998
- is treated in the strictest confidence
Steve Peters, Lettings Research Business Manager explains:
"The greater the range of sources of information, types of rental properties and the areas within which they are let, the more comprehensive the information used to determine the LHAs.
We are working hard to engage private landlords and make sure the market they operate in, especially where they let privately rather than through an agent, is properly represented in the LHA rates we produce.
The information from a landlord with just one property is as important to us as one with a hundred"
Using the information for Local Housing Allowance
See how the lettings information you provide directly contributes towards Local Housing Allowances. Simply follow this link to the LHA-Direct Do it Online application on DirectGov.
Your rental information is adding value in other ways
VOA statisticians are working with the Office of National Statistics (ONS) to improve the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) and the Retail Prices Index (RPI), two of the most important UK economic statistics. Anonymised as statistical data, your rental information will be used in two ways:
- the development of a measure of owner occupiers' housing costs in the CPI, which is a top priority for the Office for National Statistics, HM Treasury and the Bank of England
- improve the existing private rents series in the CPI and RPI.
The VOA also publish official Private Rental Market statistics by local authority area using your rental information. The statistics are freely available on our website www.voa.gov.uk/corporate/publications/index.html
We recognise the goodwill you show providing rental information and the trust you put in us with your data. Having taken years to build, it’s a partnership we’re committed to improve by listening and working with you. Our future plans include updating the statistics monthly and showing them at a more detailed level than local authority. We are also working on a new website that will give you an easier and more secure ways to provide your information. Details to follow soon.
All contributions are welcome – we need basic details about the property let and confirmation of the rent payable. Any rental information that you contribute will be dealt with in the strictest of confidence and in accordance with the Data Protection Act.