THE Northern Ireland rental market was one of only three regions across the UK to see a decline in growth during the first month of 2015, new figures have revealed.
Findings from the HomeLet Rental Index show rental prices in the north dropped from £559 in December, 2014, to £556 in January this year - a marginal drop of 0.5 per cent.
This compares to a monthly rental cost of £569 in January 2014, representing an annual reduction of 2.3 per cent and making Northern Ireland the only region not to have experienced a growth spurt during the last year.
Two other regions to a suffer monthly price dips were the West Midlands and the North East which reported a 1.1 per cent and 2.6 per cent price drop respectively.
Conversely, substantial growth was seen in nine other regions in the UK, with the East Midlands, Scotland and East Anglia, presenting the greatest monthly rises of 6.2 per cent, 5.7 per cent and 5 per cent respectively.
On average, rent on new tenancies rose by 2.5 per cent during the first month of the year, with the average rent in the UK now sitting at £889, or £707 excluding the Greater London area where tenants paid an average of £1,425 to live in the English capital last month.