RENTS have risen by five per cent in Bournemouth this year alone.

The data from the Valuation Office Agency applies to the period between April 2017 and March 2018.

Between April 2016 and March 2017 the median monthly rent for all houses in Bournemouth was £715, according to the Valuation Office Agency.

By March this year that had risen to £750.

Rents in Bournemouth have been rising since 2013-14, when the VOA first began publishing this data. Over the past four years prices have increased by around 12 per cent on average.

Lawrence Bowles, research analyst at estate agency Savills, said he thought rents would continue to increase over the next four years.

He said: "Our forecast is strongest for investors in London and we expect rental prices will be in line with wage growth there and in other big cities, such as Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham.

"Outside urban areas I expect rents to grow slower than wages."

The UK currently has the highest number of private renters in the country's history, more than one in five households. By 2021 one in four people are expected to be private tenants.

Adults in their 20s and 30s have been nicknamed Generation Rent as soaring house prices have put buying properties out of reach.

Dan Wilson Craw, director of pressure group Generation Rent, said: "Renters are in a bind. If they choose to live where there's a strong jobs market they might see their pay packet gobbled up by high rents.

"If they live somewhere cheaper, either there's a risk that it's harder to find a stable job or they pay for it in higher commuting costs.

"The government must make renting a more secure arrangement, with restrictions on rent rises and unfair evictions, but also look at how to introduce a living rent that ordinary workers can afford."

In Christchurch the median cost of renting a home is £825, a rise of 10 per cent since 2013-14.

The median monthly cost of renting a one bedroom property in Christchurch is now £644, a 12 per cent rise on 2013-14. For families renting a three bedroom home the median cost is £1,050, a 16.7 per cent rise.

In Poole the median cost of renting a home is £795, the figures show.

The median rent for a one bed home is now £625, or an 8.7 per cent increase on 2013-14, and for a three bed home the cost is £995, a 13.7 per cent rise.

Polly Neate, CEO of housing and homelessness charity Shelter, said it was no longer just renters in the capital city who paid high prices for rent.

“The days of the rent crisis being confined to London are long gone, renters right across the country are now regularly faced with sky high rents,” she said.

“The consequence of this is families struggling day to day, fretting over every penny, in fear of falling short of their rent, getting into arrears and losing the roof over their heads.”

She added: “Consecutive governments have failed to deal with this rent crisis but we need this one to step in by building far more homes that are genuinely affordable to rent.”