United Kingdom rent index flat in March 1990

The rent index for the United Kingdom stood at 37 in March 1990, according to the Office for National Statistics. The index uses 2015 as its base period, with 2015 set at 100, so the March 1990 reading shows the level of rents at that time relative to that later reference year.

The latest figure was unchanged from the month before. The index was also 37 in February 1990, and Housing Market Group calculations based on Office for National Statistics figures put the change between February 1990 and March 1990 at 0.0%. In January 1990 the index was slightly lower, at 36.9, so the opening months of 1990 show rents holding broadly steady after a small rise at the start of the year.

The picture is different when the latest month is set against the same point a year earlier. In March 1989 the UK rent index was 33.7, according to the Office for National Statistics, the same level it had recorded in February 1989. Housing Market Group calculations put the change between March 1989 and March 1990 at 9.8%. This means that although rents were flat from one month to the next in early 1990, they had risen markedly over the preceding year.

Housing Market Group also compared the UK trend with the United States over the same period. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures, Housing Market Group calculates that the US rent index rose by 4.1% between March 1989 and March 1990. The annual increase recorded in the United Kingdom was therefore more than double the US rise over the same stretch. The two indices are built on different base periods, 2015 for the UK series and 1982-84 for the US series, so their index levels cannot be compared directly. Only the rates of change are set side by side here.

Taken together, the figures show a UK rental market in which the index paused in February and March 1990 while still standing well above its level of March 1989. The fact sheet does not include regional breakdowns or Housing Market Group platform data for this period, so it is not possible to say from these figures how rents moved in individual parts of the country or how tenant search demand and listings behaved alongside the official index.