Record tenant demand and properties being let out quicker than ever before has led to the average asking rent of a home in Dorset surpassing £1,000 per calendar month.

Average rent in June 2021 was £1,474 in Poole, a percentage increase of 12%, from June 2020.

In Bournemouth, it was £1,181, an increase of 6% and in Christchurch it stood at £1,322, an increase of 4%.

Philip Skorochod from Martin & Co Bournemouth says “People are actually gazumping each other, we won’t allow it but they try to gazump. We’ve never had that in rentals before.

“Last year, an average one bedroom would rent out for £700 per calendar month, now they’re going out for at least £850-900 and that gives you an idea of the increase because it’s been substantial.

“It’s not local people who are renting it’s people from outside the area. We do block viewings and generally if not all of them, most of them will make an offer and some people will say they’d like to make an increased offer.

“Our company won’t allow that so we’ll give the details to the landlord and they will decide which tenant they want but other companies are doing it.”

National asking rents in many areas outside London have reached this record and many have surpassed £1,000 per calendar month for the first time.

Across the country, asking rents are 2.6% higher now than in Q1 2021 and 6.2% higher than this time last year, the biggest quarterly and annual jumps ever recorded by Rightmove.

London is the only region with rents lower than this time last year. Rental properties are finding a tenant quicker than ever before at an average of 21 days, and the fast-paced market has led to an annual drop of 36% in the number of available rental properties.

Rightmove’s Quarterly Rental Trends Tracker, based on over 470,000 properties, reveals that the number of prospective tenants contacting agents about properties for rent is currently 10% higher than in July 2020, across Great Britain.