The average private rent in London was £2,332 a month in August 2026, up 3.5% on a year earlier (ONS Price Index of Private Rents, published 16 September 2026). By size of home, the average was £1,760 for a one-bed, £2,232 for a two-bed, £2,643 for a three-bed and £3,646 for four or more bedrooms. A room in a shared home was advertised at an average of £915 a month, bills included (SpareRoom, April to June 2026).
Those are averages of what people pay across all tenancies. Asking rents on flats advertised today are higher on average, and the section below explains why and by how much. Every borough’s own figures, with their history since 2015, are on the London Rent Index on FTR London.
Average rent in London by size of home
| Home | Average rent | Change in a year |
|---|---|---|
| One bedroom | £1,760 | +3.7% |
| Two bedrooms | £2,232 | +3.6% |
| Three bedrooms | £2,643 | +3.9% |
| Four or more bedrooms | £3,646 | +3.0% |
| Flat or maisonette (any size) | £2,056 | +3.4% |
| All homes | £2,332 | +3.5% |
The ONS publishes no figure for studios or for rooms. SpareRoom’s £915 for a London room is an advertised price that normally includes bills; its inner London average was £979 and outer London £794. Our comparison of renting alone and sharing sets a room against a one-bed in every borough.
Average rent in every London borough
Kensington and Chelsea is the most expensive borough, at £3,690 a month on average, and Bexley the cheapest, at £1,537. The table covers the 32 boroughs the ONS publishes; there is no separate figure for the City of London.
| Borough | All homes | One-bed | Two-bed | Change in a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kensington and Chelsea | £3,690 | £2,640 | £3,428 | +2.1% |
| Westminster | £3,196 | £2,548 | £3,305 | −0.6% |
| Islington | £2,868 | £2,178 | £2,697 | +6.2% |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | £2,825 | £2,000 | £2,622 | +3.3% |
| Camden | £2,819 | £2,054 | £2,621 | +1% |
| Hackney | £2,658 | £2,001 | £2,489 | +3.6% |
| Wandsworth | £2,632 | £1,938 | £2,463 | +4.2% |
| Lambeth | £2,525 | £1,882 | £2,342 | +3.7% |
| Southwark | £2,474 | £1,876 | £2,348 | +5.4% |
| Tower Hamlets | £2,453 | £1,992 | £2,418 | +3.5% |
| Richmond upon Thames | £2,333 | £1,732 | £2,222 | +4.4% |
| Haringey | £2,219 | £1,639 | £2,034 | +1.4% |
| Merton | £2,172 | £1,639 | £2,024 | +5.4% |
| Ealing | £2,109 | £1,629 | £2,033 | +3% |
| Brent | £2,014 | £1,577 | £1,934 | +3.4% |
| Greenwich | £1,995 | £1,563 | £1,932 | +6.1% |
| Hounslow | £1,952 | £1,583 | £1,947 | +3.2% |
| Barnet | £1,949 | £1,500 | £1,858 | +3.3% |
| Newham | £1,928 | £1,630 | £1,993 | +2.9% |
| Lewisham | £1,829 | £1,457 | £1,789 | +2% |
| Enfield | £1,827 | £1,422 | £1,764 | +5.1% |
| Kingston upon Thames | £1,811 | £1,379 | £1,755 | −1.2% |
| Harrow | £1,778 | £1,394 | £1,715 | +2.9% |
| Waltham Forest | £1,763 | £1,400 | £1,723 | +1.5% |
| Redbridge | £1,726 | £1,368 | £1,681 | +2% |
| Barking and Dagenham | £1,698 | £1,377 | £1,721 | +2.6% |
| Bromley | £1,684 | £1,312 | £1,641 | +2.7% |
| Croydon | £1,582 | £1,265 | £1,573 | +3.2% |
| Hillingdon | £1,570 | £1,252 | £1,586 | +2.5% |
| Havering | £1,565 | £1,217 | £1,542 | +1.5% |
| Sutton | £1,556 | £1,239 | £1,554 | +2.1% |
| Bexley | £1,537 | £1,229 | £1,526 | +1.6% |
Rents rose fastest in the year to August 2026 in Islington (+6.2%) and Greenwich (+6.1%), and fell in only two boroughs: Westminster (−0.6%) and Kingston upon Thames (−1.2%). For the cheapest options by size of home, see our guide to the cheapest places to rent in London.
Why you see different “average” London rents
Different sources measure different things, which is why you will see several ‘average London rents’:
- The ONS figure (£2,332) is the average rent being paid across all private tenancies, including people who have been in the same home for years on older rents. It excludes tenancies where the tenant receives Housing Benefit.
- Rightmove (£2,791) is the average advertised rent on new listings: a record in April to June 2026, with inner London at £3,299 and outer London at £2,418 (Rightmove Rental Trends Tracker).
- HomeLet (£2,238) is the average rent on new tenancies it referenced in August 2026 (HomeLet Rental Index). Its figure depends on which tenancies pass through its service.
For someone moving now, treat the ONS figure as a benchmark, not a quote. Rightmove’s average asking rent for April to June 2026 (£2,791) was about £460 a month above the ONS average for August 2026, though asking rents are what landlords advertise rather than what tenants end up paying, and the two cover different mixes of homes. Rents agreed on new tenancies can come in below the ONS average: HomeLet’s London figure for August 2026 (£2,238) was about £95 lower. Use the ONS figure to judge whether a borough is expensive relative to others, and current listings to judge a specific flat.
How London rents have changed
London’s average rent has risen from £1,706 in August 2021 to £2,332 in August 2026, up £626 a month, or 37%. The pace has slowed and then picked up again: annual growth peaked at about 11.5% in November 2024, fell to 1.1% in January 2026, and has picked up since, reaching 3.0% in July and 3.5% in August 2026 (ONS, September 2026 edition). London’s average is £873 a month above England’s (£1,459), and nearly three times the cheapest English region, the North East (£788).
Forecasts are only forecasts, and they differ. Savills forecast in November 2025 that London rents would rise 11.5% in total over the five years 2026 to 2030. Knight Frank forecast in April 2026 that prime central and prime outer London rents would rise 3.5% in 2026. Our look at whether London rents will fall goes through the arguments.
Rent against pay
The median full-time salary of London residents was £46,414 a year in April 2025 (ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, provisional), or about £3,868 a month before tax. The average one-bed rent of £1,760 is 46% of that gross figure. Many letting agents use a test of annual income at least 30 times the monthly rent, so the average one-bed would need an income of £52,800 a year, above the London median. Our guide to passing tenant referencing explains the income tests and what to do if you fall short.
Using the averages
When budgeting, start from the ONS figure for your borough and size of home, then check current listings on the streets you want: expect to pay more than the average for a flat advertised now. Add council tax, energy and travel, which can add several hundred pounds a month; our guide to the hidden costs of renting in London adds them up.
When your rent goes up, remember that since 1 May 2026 a landlord can raise it only once a year, with a Form 4A notice, and you can ask the First-tier Tribunal to decide whether the new rent is above the open market. The tribunal decides what your home would let for on the open market now, not what the borough average is, so gather current listings for similar homes nearby as your evidence. You must apply before the date the new rent is due to start, and the tribunal cannot set a rent higher than the one your landlord proposed. Our guide to negotiating rent covers what to say.
Find a home at the right price
Browse one-bedroom flats, two-bedroom flats or rooms in shared flats across London. On FTR London, landlords list their homes themselves and you contact them directly.
Landlords: since 1 May 2026 you advertise a single rent and can’t accept offers above it, so check your borough and size of home on the London Rent Index before you set it, and list your property on FTR London.
How we researched this: rents from the ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026 data, published 16 September 2026; next release 21 October 2026), Rightmove (Q2 2026), HomeLet (August 2026) and SpareRoom (Q2 2026); pay from ONS ASHE (April 2025, provisional); forecasts from Savills (November 2025) and Knight Frank (April 2026). Checked on 24 September 2026.
Correction, 24 September 2026: this guide was rewritten. Earlier versions attributed figures to two ONS series that have been discontinued, and gave rent ranges by zone and borough that those sources do not publish.