To hear the media talk you'd think London rents were on an unstoppable course upwards, but actually the average is down 5.5% since the peak in September 2015.
I've just got together the data contained in each of LSL's monthly buy-to-let reports since January 2014 (source here - http://www.lslps.co.uk/news) up to April 2016. Strangely, their reports have glossed over what's been happening in London, but here's what the data shows:
Average monthly rent has fallen for seven months straight:
Annual rate of change close to going negative:
Gross yields hit a new low (sorry about the missing data point for Nov 2014, that report is missing):