RENT prices in York are increasing faster than most other UK cities, new research shows.

A report from the housing search engine, Zoopla, has found that rents are increasing in the city nearly twice as fast as a year ago.

Across the UK, the average monthly rent in the final quarter of 2019 was £886 – up by 2.6 per cent in the last year - but York's is even higher, and is one of only three cities to see rents increase by 5 per cent or more annually.

York is third in the league table with a 5.0 per cent rise, behind Bristol with rates of 5.5 per cent and Nottingham 5.8 per cent.

The high cost of buying a home in York is likely to be supporting rental demand said Zoopla said in its annual survey.

It added that tax changes in recent years, which have eaten into landlords’ profits, mean the supply of rental homes has dwindled.

But demand from tenants has increased, pushing rental prices upwards, according to the index.

Richard Donnell, research and insight director at Zoopla, said: " New investment by landlords has fallen since the introduction of tax changes in 2016 and this has been felt most keenly in southern England where property values are highest and yield lowest.

This is creating scarcity and explains why rents are rising.

“We expect rents to increase by 3.5 per cent over 2020 as a lack of supply supports faster growth.”