housing and living standards · the national record
Private rents in the UK: what tenants are paying
What private tenants are paying across the UK, from the Office for National Statistics Price Index of Private Rents. The average UK monthly rent reached 1,388 pounds in June 2026, up 3.3 per cent on a year earlier. This page shows how rents have moved since 2015, where they are highest and lowest, which areas are rising fastest, and how the four nations compare.
How to read this
The Price Index of Private Rents tracks rents actually being paid on private tenancies, using administrative data from letting agents and landlords, not just newly advertised prices. It covers every local authority in England and Wales, Broad Rental Market Areas in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and rolls up to national and UK figures.
Computed from ONS Price Index of Private Rents, UK: monthly price statistics, June 2026 edition. UK, GB, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland; local authority figures cover England and Wales.
The going rate
An average UK rent of 1,388 pounds a month, up 3.3 per cent
The average private rent across the UK was 1,388 pounds a month in June 2026, up 3.3 per cent on the same month a year earlier. Rents vary hugely by area: from about 556 pounds a month in Hartlepool to 3,596 pounds in Kensington and Chelsea, a gap of more than 3,000 pounds a month for what the data treats as the same type of letting.
Since 2015
From 939 pounds to 1,388 pounds
The average UK private rent has risen every year since the series began in 2015, from 939 pounds a month to 1,388 pounds now, 1.5 times the 2015 level in cash terms. Growth was gentle through the late 2010s, then accelerated sharply from 2022, peaking at close to 9 per cent a year in 2023 and 2024 before easing back.
Average UK monthly private rent, cash terms, December of each year from 2015 to 2025, then the latest available month for 2026. Annual growth peaked at 9% in this period. Source: ONS Price Index of Private Rents.
Where rent is highest and lowest
The same tenancy market, a very different rent
Average rent is highest in Kensington and Chelsea at 3,596 pounds a month and lowest in Hartlepool at 556 pounds. The most expensive areas are almost all inner London boroughs; the least expensive are spread across the North East, North West, Yorkshire and Wales.
Highest average rent
Lowest average rent
Where rents are moving fastest
The fastest rising and falling areas
Rent growth varies as much as the rent level itself. The fastest annual rise was in Kirklees at 12.9 per cent; a handful of areas, mostly in London and the South East where rents rose fastest earlier, saw rents fall slightly over the year, led by Waverley at -3.7 per cent.
Fastest rising, 12 months to June 2026
Now £780 a month
Now £938 a month
Now £1,172 a month
Now £921 a month
Now £1,053 a month
Now £1,206 a month
Now £1,029 a month
Now £907 a month
Fastest falling, 12 months to June 2026
Now £1,448 a month
Now £1,576 a month
Now £3,168 a month
Now £824 a month
Now £1,618 a month
Now £1,812 a month
Now £1,284 a month
Now £2,791 a month
The four nations
How rents compare across the UK
England has the highest average rent of the four nations at 1,446 pounds a month, well above Scotland at 1,012 pounds, Northern Ireland at 877 pounds and Wales at 843 pounds, the cheapest of the four. Wales currently has the fastest annual rent growth at 4.9 per cent; Scotland the slowest at 1.3 per cent. Northern Ireland figures lag the rest of the UK by about two months in this data.
Data to 2026-04, lags the latest UK month
Questions this raises
For private rents
- 1.
The average UK rent has risen for eleven straight years, roughly 1.5 times higher in cash terms since 2015. How much further can rents rise before more tenants are priced out of an area entirely?
- 2.
The most expensive local authority now costs several times the least expensive for what this data treats as a comparable letting. What does that gap mean for who can live where?
- 3.
Rent growth has slowed since the 2023 to 2024 peak, but has not reversed. Is this a genuine cooling or a pause before the next rise?
- 4.
Wales has the fastest rent growth of the four nations from a lower starting level. Is it catching up, or is affordability there deteriorating fastest?
Sources & method
Data provenance
- Price Index of Private Rents, UK: monthly price statistics (ONS) ↗· Open Government Licence v3.0
- Private rent and house prices, UK: June 2026 (ONS bulletin) ↗· Open Government Licence v3.0
- Price Index of Private Rents QMI, methodology (ONS) ↗· Open Government Licence v3.0
Caveats & data notes
- Figures are average monthly rent across all property sizes and types in each area, from the ONS Price Index of Private Rents, which uses administrative data on rents actually being paid, not just newly advertised asking rents.
- Local authority figures cover England and Wales only. Scotland is published by ONS at Broad Rental Market Area, a wider geography than a local authority, so Scottish areas are not included in the local authority league tables here. Northern Ireland is published by Broad Rental Market Area only.
- City of London and the Isles of Scilly are not published by ONS at local authority level in this dataset because of small sample sizes, so they do not appear in the league tables.
- Northern Ireland figures in this data lag the rest of the UK: the latest available month is 2026-04, while UK, England, Wales and Scotland figures are to 2026-06.
- All figures are cash terms, not adjusted for inflation. The UK, England, Wales and Scotland headlines are reconciled to the ONS bulletin's own stated figures for the same month.
Every figure on this page traces to its official source. Share it as it stands.
Keep going
Related deep dives
How the price of a home has climbed over thirty years, how far it varies between places, and where West Lothian sits.
What share of children grow up in a low income family, by local authority and nation, how much housing costs add, and where West Lothian sits.
How many households cannot keep warm at a reasonable cost, by region and local authority, and how the measure has changed since 2010.
The monthly reading
Get the next one by email
One email a month: the national resilience score, what moved, and the newest analyses like this one, plus The Quarterly Record four times a year. Every figure traced to its official source.