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Private tenants’ brief respite from rising rents was brought to an abrupt end in January, according to the latest data from LSL property services.

Average rents rose by 0.1% last month, the first time prices have risen in January since LSL started to compile its buy-to-let index. The increase was put down to an unusually large number of prospective tenants chasing a limited number of rental properties. January is traditionally a slow month for the private rental market.

David Newnes, director of LSL Property Services, owners of Your Move and Reeds Rains, said, ‘The rental market burst back into life unseasonably early in January, with tenants on the move trying to take advantage of what is usually a quieter period for the rental market.

‘The depth of the underlying demand sustained a higher level of competition for rental property during the Christmas period, preventing more severe falls in rents than we’d normally see during the period. In January, activity has already moved up a gear in many parts of the UK, pushing rents up once more in a small, but significant rise.

‘Mortgage lending has shown signs of improving in recent months, but transactions remain at almost half their historic levels, and the increasing dependency on rental accommodation will drive further rent rises over the long‐term.’

Last month’s rise leaves the price of the average rental property in the UK at £712, equating to a year-on-year increase of £30, or 4.3%. The rise in prices flies in the face of David Cameron’s assertion that the coalition government’s housing benefit reforms are bringing private rents down.

Prices in London rose by 0.8% last month. Renting in the capital now costs an average of £1,032, 6.3% higher than this time last year. The largest fall in private rents was recorded in the east, where prices dropped 1.7% last month. Rents also fell by 1.1% in the south-east. The only region to see a decline in private rents over the 12 months to the end of January was the north-east, where average prices fell by 0.7% to £512 a month over the year.

Despite the rise in prices, returns for landlords fell to an average of 2.6% per property as arrears remained high. Some 10.7% of all rents were paid late or not at all in January.

Jack Dromey MP, Labour’s shadow housing minister, said, ’The prime minister and the housing minister told the House of Commons ‘rents have been falling’. Now we know that is not the truth.

‘The stark figures expose the truth; rents are rising almost everywhere. David Cameron and Grant Shapps are simply out of touch with the everyday lives of millions of people who hand over rent each month.

‘I wrote to the prime minister over a month ago asking him to correct the record and his silence has been deafening. I have now written a second time, asking him to correct the record and acknowledge that families up and down the country are struggling to pay rising rents. I will also be raising this matter in Parliament.’