Countrywide Residential Lettings (CRL) surveyed more than 200 of its UK-wide offices and in the three months to October CRL saw the number of new tenant enquiries increase by 11% whilst the number of new rental properties fell by 20%.
The findings reveal that the South East region has the highest proportion of new tenant enquiries, with 3.3 tenants vying for every new property that enters the market.
John Hards, co-managing director of Countrywide Residential Lettings said: "Early signs of an economic recovery and increased house sales have had a significant impact on the number of new instructions we're seeing but tenant demand remains strong - pushing rental values up in some key areas, such as London, Southampton and Bristol.
"The rental market is now in the midst of a correction as the excess supply of properties brought on by the downturn in the sales market is disappearing and rental stock is coming under increased demand from the growing number of tenants."
