New research has revealed the cost of £ 10million in rent arrears to private landlords in the North East during Covid.

It was carried out by the real estate and rental agent, Barrows and Forrester, which showed that the amount climbed from the first to the second wave of the pandemic.

In the northeast, the report says the figure rose from £ 7,602,350 in June / July 2020 to £ 9,847,530 in November / December, a massive increase of 30%.

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There are 203,000 private rental households in the Northeast, according to the researchers.

During the first wave, pandemic restrictions figures from the Office for National Statistics estimated that 7% of those households, or 14,210, were at least a month behind on their rent.

With an average rent in the region of £ 535 this was over £ 7.6million.

In November / December, the ONS said 9% were in arrears – 18,270 in this region – and with monthly rent of up to £ 539, that was over £ 9.8million.

Nationally, there are 4.8 million private rental households in England with an average rent in England in July of £ 826 per month. This means that the total rent arrears during the first wave were at least £ 277.3million.

Taking into account the increase in arrears and the monthly rent reaching £ 846, Barrows and Forrester estimate the total cash arrears to be at least £ 365.3million.

This is a 31.75% increase from the first wave, a cash difference of just over £ 88million.

Barrows and Forrester Managing Director James Forrester commented: “The first two waves of the pandemic shook the rental market.

“All of a sudden, many tenants who hadn’t previously had problems paying their rent on time found themselves out of work, or at least saw their hours drastically reduced as employers desperately tried to find a way. to survive an unprecedented moment in modern history.

“This has left hundreds of thousands of people unable to pay regular rents and so the government stepped in to protect them, making it nearly impossible for landlords to evict them at the height of the pandemic.

“As a result, when the second wave came, we saw a 2% increase in the number of private rental households in arrears, which came at a huge cost to landlords nationwide.

“We are starting to see a return to normalcy in the rental market, but this will not come as much comfort to the landlords who are now severely destitute and if a third wave does materialize we will undoubtedly see a further increase in the total amount of arrears. rent. seen across the market.

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