Unsure how much to increase rent by

So my home has been rented out for nearly a year now, I usualy just use a 6 month AST and renew it every 6 months. This gives me flexability just incase I wanted to move back into the house.

I am sure when I was using OpenRent a year ago I could see the let homes monthly rental fees. Now OpenRent doesn’t seem to show this. What is the best way to check the market value rental wise for my home. Inflation was at 5% last year (2021) however I don’t think my tenant who have been amazing would apprechate an increase as much as that.

I assume I can just email some local estate agents?
Cheers

Look on Rightmove, Zoopla etc or on individual estate agents websites for your area.

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You should only email local estate agents if you are wanting to use their services to manage the property - otherwise, I would be looking to charge for the advice if I were them because their expertise should not be expected for free.

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Why do you bother renewing the tenancy? All that paperwork every 6 months! It would give you far more flexibility if you just let it go periodic, (month to month).

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Have you notified your mortgage company you are letting it? It is mandatory for most companies, same for your insurance.

Also you will need to declare and submit an tax annual income return.

I’d look at rightmove etc to get an idea of local rent prices. This is directly relevant to how much you could rent your house to a new tenant for, and is therefore the best information to show your existing tenant to justify any increase.

Inflation is to some extent irrelevant, as you should be concerned with rental market price, rather than the cost of banana’s, but I still do consider it, as to maintain a ‘real-terms’ rent value taking inflation into consideration is certaintly preferable to a reduction.

You could also look at the ONS rental index for your area. This is not neccesarily to easiest to use website, but it could prove useful. Index of Private Housing Rental Prices, UK: monthly estimates - Office for National Statistics