Deposits drop for many of the UK’s tenants...

Average deposits paid by tenants dropped in many areas of England and Wales during the final quarter of 2014.

The Q4 2014 Tenancy Deposits Digest found that the average monthly deposit protected by my|deposits – which published the report – now stands at £1,226. This marks an increase of £52 over the last year, despite falling between Q3 and Q4.

London was among the many areas of England and Wales to see quarterly drops in the average deposit amounts at the end of last year.

The digest found that the capital saw a 2.6% drop equalling to -£49 to a total of £1,811 between the third and final quarters of 2014.

The figures also show a difference of £1,244 between the average cost of deposits in the most expensive and cheapest regions in England and Wales.

Elsewhere, the East Midlands saw an 11% (£67) increase up to £679 per average deposit whilse the West Midlands saw a 5.3% (-£42) decrease down to £747.

Meanwhile, in the North West there was a £24 (3.9%) increase to £650 compared to the largest monetary drop in value in the North East which experienced a huge 31.6% (-£263) drop to £567, the lowest overall across England and Wales.

Wales also saw a big drop of 23% (-£197) in deposit values taking their average total to £657.

Deposits in the East of England dropped at the same pace as London (-2.6%) for the quarter but saw the biggest increase across the UK throughout the year with a 6.2% (£60) hike up to £1,021, the third highest behind the South East (£1,203) and London.

“This the first cycle in which we’ve seen a steady quarter-on-quarter reduction to average deposit values in many parts of England and Wales,” commented Eddie Hooker, CEO of mydeposits.

“While it’s difficult to pinpoint an exact reason for this, it is most likely to be attributable to rental demand tailing off throughout December. This is because deposits are commonly set at between four-six week’s rents and landlords and agents are more likely to accept lower than advertised rents in December in order to avoid having vacant properties over the Christmas and New Year period and experiencing a void,” he added.

To download the latest digest, visit: http://www.mydeposits.co.uk/digest-issue3.