In her analysis of LSL letting agent indices she concluded that landlords are wrongly being blamed for increasing rents at double the rate of wage growth.
Foulkner said: “This has been ‘jumped on’ by some of the media claiming landlords are ‘cashing in’ on tenants.
“This may make a great headline, but it’s hardly true.
“The reality is rents are rising at less than inflation, so in real terms the landlord is worse off than they were last year.”
According to the LSL index residential rents across England and Wales were 1.4% higher year-on-year in June 2014, below the rate of CPI inflation at 1.9%.
In Foulkner’s opinion the real villains are companies who fail to increase wages.
She said: “It’s about time the headlines started to investigate why companies, when many are making healthy profits, aren’t increasing wages at least in line with inflation.
“The problem isn’t ‘greedy’ landlords it’s about companies not increasing wages.
“This means it is tough for a landlord to increase their rents and in turn that means it is tough for them to put money aside for repairs and upgrades.”
