Renting in west London costs very different amounts depending on which side of the borough line you land. A one-bedroom flat averages £2,000 a month in Hammersmith and Fulham, which covers Shepherd’s Bush and Hammersmith, against £1,629 in Ealing, which covers Ealing and Acton, and £1,583 in Hounslow, which covers Chiswick and Brentford (ONS Price Index of Private Rents, August 2026). The Elizabeth line is the reason the cheaper side is worth a look: Ealing Broadway is 16 to 17 minutes from Tottenham Court Road in the morning peak.
This guide compares six areas on what they cost, how they connect and what each gets wrong. The rents are official borough averages from the London Rent Index on FTR London; ONS publishes no figure for a single neighbourhood, so where an area is pricier or cheaper than its borough, we say so without inventing a number.
The three boroughs at a glance
| Borough | Areas covered | 1-bed | 2-bed | All homes | Change on a year | Band D council tax |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hammersmith and Fulham | Shepherd’s Bush, Hammersmith | £2,000 | £2,622 | £2,825 | +3.3% | £1,519.51 |
| Ealing | Ealing, Acton | £1,629 | £2,033 | £2,109 | +3.0% | £2,138.53 |
| Hounslow | Chiswick, Brentford | £1,583 | £1,947 | £1,952 | +3.2% | £2,185.56 |
| London | £1,760 | £2,232 | £2,332 | +3.5% |
Rents rose a little more slowly in all three boroughs than across London as a whole over the year to August 2026. The council tax column works the other way: Hammersmith and Fulham has one of the lowest Band D bills in London, about £620 a year below Ealing’s (MHCLG, Council Tax levels 2026-27). Your own bill depends on the band your home is in.
Take a renter weighing a one-bed in Hammersmith and Fulham against one in Ealing. At the borough averages the Ealing flat is £371 a month cheaper, £4,452 a year. The Band D difference claws back about £620 of that, and the fare difference is small: a peak pay-as-you-go single to central London costs £3.60 from Zone 2 and £3.90 across Zones 1 to 3, the same on the Elizabeth line from Ealing Broadway as on the Tube (TfL fares, 2026), about £3 a week on ten journeys. Ealing still comes out close to £3,700 a year ahead, which is the case for looking west of the borough line if your commute runs along the Elizabeth or Central line.
Shepherd’s Bush (W12)
Shepherd’s Bush is in Zone 2 and has two stations a short walk apart: Shepherd’s Bush on the Central line, which runs straight through the West End and the City, and Shepherd’s Bush on the Overground, whose Mildmay line trains run south to Clapham Junction and north to Willesden Junction and Stratford. Shepherd’s Bush Market station, on the Hammersmith & City and Circle lines, is a third option to Paddington. Westfield London is next to the Central line station.
The only official rent figure covering Shepherd’s Bush is the Hammersmith and Fulham average of £2,000 for a one-bed. The appeal is the direct Central line run to Oxford Circus and Bank without a change, from a Zone 2 fare.
Downside: Shepherd’s Bush Green is ringed by a one-way traffic system, the Uxbridge Road is a main road, and the Westfield London shopping centre is next to the station. Check the specific street before you commit.
Suits: people who work in the West End or the City and want one line, no change, from Zone 2.
Hammersmith (W6)
Hammersmith is also Zone 2 and is one of the best-connected places in west London: the District and Piccadilly lines at one Hammersmith station, and the Hammersmith & City and Circle lines at another across the road. Two lines to central London from one ticket hall mean a fallback when one is disrupted. The riverside between Hammersmith Bridge and Chiswick, along Lower and Upper Mall, is a public Thames path with pubs including the Dove.
Downside: the station sits inside the Hammersmith Broadway gyratory, so the immediate centre is dominated by traffic. You pay Hammersmith and Fulham rents for the transport and the river, not for the town centre.
Suits: commuters with more than one destination, and anyone who wants the river on their doorstep.
Ealing (W5)
Ealing Broadway, in Zone 3, is served by the Elizabeth, Central and District lines. The Elizabeth line reaches Tottenham Court Road in 16 to 17 minutes in the morning peak (TfL Journey Planner), which is quicker than the same journey from some Zone 2 stations: Hackney Central to Tottenham Court Road takes about 28 minutes at that time. Haven Green is next to the station, and Walpole Park and Pitzhanger Manor, the country house Sir John Soane designed for himself, are a few minutes’ walk south.
The Ealing borough average of £1,629 for a one-bed is £371 below Hammersmith and Fulham’s. South Ealing and Northfields, on the Piccadilly line rather than the Elizabeth line, are further from the fast trains.
Downside: Ealing is suburban in feel, and the council tax is higher than in the inner west. The Elizabeth line advantage applies only if you live near one of its stations: Ealing Broadway or, a stop further west, West Ealing.
Suits: people commuting to the West End, the City or Canary Wharf on the Elizabeth line who would rather have more space than a Zone 2 postcode.
Acton (W3)
Acton has more stations than any of the other five areas: Acton Main Line on the Elizabeth line, Acton Town on the District and Piccadilly lines, Acton Central and South Acton on the Overground, and North Acton, East Acton and West Acton on the Central line. Which one is nearest matters more than the postcode. Acton Main Line is served only by the Elizabeth line’s stopping trains, so check the frequency, not only the journey time.
Acton is in Ealing, so the borough figure of £1,629 for a one-bed applies here too. The area runs from Park Royal and the A40 Western Avenue in the north to the edge of Chiswick in the south, and the roads near the A40 and the industrial land around Park Royal are a different proposition from the streets near Acton Central.
Downside: the choice of stations is the upside and the complication: a flat that is ‘in Acton’ can be 15 minutes’ walk from the line you actually need.
Suits: budget-minded renters who pick a specific station for a specific commute.
Chiswick (W4)
Chiswick is in Hounslow, but the borough’s average of £1,583 for a one-bed covers very different places, from Chiswick to Feltham and Hounslow West, and ONS publishes nothing for Chiswick alone. Compare listings in W4 itself before relying on the borough number. What Chiswick offers is Chiswick House and Gardens, the river at Strand-on-the-Green, and Chiswick High Road.
Transport is its limit. Turnham Green, Chiswick Park and Gunnersbury are on the District line (Gunnersbury also has the Overground), and Chiswick station has South Western Railway trains to Waterloo. There is no Central or Elizabeth line.
Downside: the A4 and the Hogarth Roundabout run through the south of the area; homes near them trade quiet for access. Commutes to the City or Canary Wharf are slow.
Suits: people who work in west London, on the District line or near Waterloo, and value green space over speed.
Brentford (TW8)
Brentford sits where the Grand Union Canal meets the Thames, across the river from Kew Gardens. Brentford FC moved from Griffin Park to the Gtech Community Stadium near Kew Bridge in 2020, and flats have been built around the new stadium. The old Griffin Park site has not been built on yet: a plan for 149 homes there won Hounslow’s planning approval in 2025, with building expected to start in 2026 (Carter Jonas). Brentford and Kew Bridge stations have South Western Railway trains to Waterloo; the nearest Underground stations are Boston Manor on the Piccadilly line and Gunnersbury on the District line.
Rent comes under the Hounslow figure of £1,583 for a one-bed, the lowest of the three boroughs.
Downside: there is no Tube in the centre of Brentford, and South Western Railway to Waterloo, about 33 minutes from Brentford in the morning peak (TfL Journey Planner), is the main direct route. Ballymore’s Brentford Project, 876 homes where the River Brent meets the Thames, is still under construction and due to finish in 2027 (Ballymore).
Suits: people commuting towards Waterloo or working in west London who want the lowest borough average of the three.
Which area for which commute
- West End or the City, one line: Shepherd’s Bush on the Central line, or Ealing Broadway on the Elizabeth line for the lower Ealing average.
- Canary Wharf: the Elizabeth line from Ealing Broadway or Acton Main Line runs through without a change.
- Waterloo: Chiswick, Brentford or Kew Bridge on South Western Railway.
- North or east London: west London is a long way round; check the journey on the TfL Journey Planner before you view.
For how rents change with travel zone across the whole city, see our breakdown of London rent by tube zone; our guide to where to live in London compares areas in every direction, and the cheapest places to rent in London ranks every borough on rent.
Find a home in west London
On FTR London you can browse homes to rent in Hammersmith and Fulham, Ealing and Hounslow, or across London by borough, zone, bedrooms and property type, and contact landlords directly.
If you own a rental home in west London, you can list it directly on FTR London without paying a letting agent, and check your borough’s average in the Rent Index before you set the rent.
How we researched this: rents from the ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026) via the London Rent Index; council tax from MHCLG’s Council Tax levels 2026-27; fares and journey times from TfL, checked on 25 September 2026.
Correction, 25 September 2026: an earlier version of this guide gave one-bedroom rent ranges for each area attributed to Rightmove, whose quarterly rental report gives no figures for these areas or by bedroom size, and told renters to expect requests for ’12-month deposits upfront’ in Hammersmith, which the deposit cap (five weeks’ rent, or six where the rent is £50,000 a year or more) and, since 1 May 2026, the ban on rent before signing do not allow. It also linked a guide that has since been merged into another. Several journey times were wrong: Shepherd’s Bush to Oxford Circus takes 11 to 12 minutes, not 8; Brentford to Waterloo about 33, not 20; Acton Main Line to Liverpool Street 19 to 21, not 18. It also put South Ealing and Northfields on the District line (they are on the Piccadilly line) and placed Ballymore’s 876-home Brentford scheme on the former football stadium site, when it is in Brentford town centre. The guide has been rebuilt on official borough figures.
