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With more and more people choosing to rent rather than buy - thanks to high house prices and the increasing difficulty of securing a mortgage - the scrutiny on this sector of the property industry is fiercer than ever.

It seems like every day there is a new story about rental prices going out of control. There is, however, an argument that the never-ending focus on London's property market, in particular, is skewing people's perception of the overall picture.

Recent stories in the national press about tenants in London being forced' to share rooms because of sky-high rents only act to scare people, especially in the run-up to the general election. Is it really so surprising that rents in one of the largest and richest cities in the world are so high Is more balance therefore needed to make sure people are getting a more rounded view of the rental sector

For example, if the media took into account the whole of the country, the picture would look remarkably different. Whilst rents rose in some cities and towns in 2014, they fell in others. In big cities like Manchester, Brighton, Cardiff, Belfast and Leeds, average rents decreased. Even in Croydon, part of Greater London, HomeLet's most recent data showed that rents dropped by 23% (from £574 to £441). But the public doesn't get to hear about this very often. The national headline is never rents go down in Leeds' or rental prices fall in Manchester', it's always London's rent prices out of control' or, as we saw this week, articles like I was forced to rent a shared bedroom with a stranger (in Soho).

More often than not, the focus is very London-centric. The situation in the capital, which seems to operate in its own little world when it comes to property, gives people the impression that the Private Rented Sector (PRS) is a disaster. There's no shortage of figures for the rest of the country, but due to the media's need for reads and engagement, these seem to be ignored in favour of sensationalised stories about the outrageous rents in London.

All this negativity is working to create a culture of anti-landlords and agents. Young people looking to rent might be more inclined to stay at home if they assume rents are unaffordable and out of their reach. But London doesn't equal the rest of the country - it's important to remember that it's not complete doom and gloom for everyone looking to rent.

Even criticism of the new portal, OnTheMarket, concentrated on how well they were faring in London against Rightmove and Zoopla. The analyst in question described London as the main battleground, despite Agents' Mutual's portal having strong footholds in parts of Wales and northern England. If there is this constant bias towards the capital, it stands to reason that the perception of a vast majority of the population will be tainted. Many might assume that if rent prices are sky-high in London, other cities will merely follow suit.

HomeLet also found that the average monthly rent in the UK for 2014 was £867. Whilst this might sound worryingly high, it once again doesn't paint the whole picture. That monthly figure is massively skewed by London and its surrounding areas. Other than the capital, only Cambridge saw average monthly rents of above £1,000, with most other cities and towns offering rents that are not quite so eye-watering.

It's easy to think that London is the centre of the universe and that the UK's biggest city is the benchmark for what is happening in the rest of the country, but it's important to keep a sense of perspective, too. When it comes to renting property, the situation is not as dismal as some of Soho's room-sharers would have you believe.

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