Average Rent UK: The Official Figure Charted Every Month

Article updated 12 November 2026

The average rent in the UK shown in the chart above is the Office for National Statistics measure of what private tenants actually pay, across every existing tenancy rather than just new lets, charted for every month since January 2015. The headline line carries the latest published figure with the month it belongs to, so the number on this page is never older than the official one. Mortgage One is a whole of market mortgage adviser arranging buy-to-let and residential mortgages for landlords and first-time buyers weighing rent against buying.

For a free initial consultation on what current rents support in buy-to-let borrowing, call 01202 155992 or contact Mortgage One.

Where the average UK rent figure comes from

The figure is the average UK monthly private rent from the Price Index of Private Rents, published by the Office for National Statistics each month, usually around the middle of the month and covering the month two before. It spans all property types across the whole private rental stock and the series begins in January 2015.

The index is built from rental data the statisticians collect across the United Kingdom, mix-adjusted so that a month with more large homes let does not read as a rise, and published without seasonal adjustment. Northern Ireland's data enters the UK figure with a lag, a caveat the index itself carries. The same release publishes separate figures for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, so the average rent in England is a sister series to the UK line charted here rather than the same number.

The chart reads the series from our data feed on every page load, with a dated snapshot embedded as the fallback, and the status line beneath it says which was used. The headline line always carries the month the figure belongs to, never the day you load the page, which is the honest way to publish a series that arrives on the official timetable rather than in real time.

Why advertised rents look higher than the average

Portal trackers measure advertised rents on new lets, which reprice to the market the day they are listed. The official index measures what tenants pay across all existing tenancies, including those renewed quietly years ago, so it sits lower and moves later. Both are right. They measure different things.

This is the gap behind most arguments about UK rental prices. A landlord re-letting a property prices against the advertised market, so the portal figure is the one that matters on the day the board goes up. A tenant who has been in place for three years is usually paying below it, because most landlords lift rent at renewal by less than the open market has moved. The official stock measure averages across both, which is why it reads lower than the headlines and keeps rising after new-let growth cools.

Which figure to use depends on the question. Pricing a specific let is a job for local comparables, not a national average. Measuring the market, settling what has happened to average rent prices over a year or a decade, and citing a number that will not be revised away is what the official series is for, and it is the one this page charts.

How much has rent gone up in the UK since 2015?

The published average was £910 a month in January 2015, the start of the official series, and £1,042 in September 2021. By September 2026 it had risen 55% on the series start and 35% on September 2021, and the fastest annual rise in the series was 9.1% in March 2024.

The shape of the chart is two different markets. From 2015 to 2021 the average climbed gently, with annual growth mostly low single digits. From late 2021 growth accelerated sharply, peaking in early 2024, as tenant demand ran ahead of a shrinking supply of rental homes and landlord costs rose with mortgage rates. How far those rates moved is visible on our chart of average fixed rates by LTV band, and much of a landlord's repricing at renewal in 2023 and 2024 traces back to it.

The average rent increase per year in the UK is therefore not one number. The chart's annual change view shows the published rate for every month since the series began, with its date, which is the figure to quote rather than a remembered one. Supply is the variable to watch from here: fewer rental homes chasing the same tenants holds growth up even when the wider economy cools.

What rising rents mean for landlords and buy-to-let lending

Buy-to-let lenders size a loan on rental cover, testing that the rent clears the mortgage interest at a stressed rate by a set margin, typically 125% for limited company and basic rate borrowers and 145% for higher rate taxpayers. A higher supportable rent therefore carries a larger loan at the same rate.

Rising rents move three numbers at once. Gross yield rises where prices are flat: rent of £1,200 a month on a £240,000 property is a 6% gross yield, since yield is simply annual rent divided by price. Rental cover improves, which can turn a declined case into an approved one or a 65% loan into a 75% one. And the valuer's market rent figure, which is the one the lender actually uses when it is lower than the agreed rent, drifts up with the comparables.

The lending side moves too. Stress rates follow fixed rates with a lag, product fees shift the cover arithmetic, and lenders differ widely on how they treat top-slicing, limited companies and portfolio landlords. Where the big buy-to-let lenders price today, by loan to value and fee, is on our buy-to-let mortgage rates page, read against a checked date.

If you are a landlord weighing a purchase or remortgage and want the rental cover tested against today's criteria, call 01202 155992 or contact Mortgage One.

Is it cheaper to rent or pay a mortgage in the UK?

The honest comparison is rent against the monthly payment on the same home, plus the deposit needed to get there. Our payment chart works that cost out for the average-priced UK home every month on a 25% deposit, and this page carries what the average tenant pays beside it.

The two lines answer different stages of the same decision. While rates were at their 2021 lows the mortgage payment on a typical home sat well below its rent. The repricing of 2022 and 2023 narrowed and in places reversed that, and the gap has moved month by month since. Setting our average mortgage payment UK chart against this one shows where the balance sits now, and our average house price UK chart carries the price that drives both.

For a renter the harder number is usually the deposit, not the payment, because rent paid monthly is exactly what slows the saving. That trap and the arithmetic for escaping it are worked through in our analysis of whether now is a good time to buy a house, which runs the current figures through a 75% loan. A lender's answer depends on income, outgoings and credit history as much as on the rent being replaced, which is where advice earns its keep.

Using, citing and reproducing this rent data

The full series is free to download and free to reproduce with attribution. It covers every month from January 2015 with two fields, the average UK monthly private rent and its annual change, and it updates each month when the Office for National Statistics publishes the next figure.

The complete series is available as a CSV download, and the underlying data is published by the Office for National Statistics under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The chart and the series may be reproduced in articles, research and presentations provided Mortgage One is credited and the page is linked. No permission request is needed.

To cite this page:

Mortgage One, Average Rent UK, https://www.mortgageonefinance.co.uk/average-rent-uk, accessed [date].

If you need the series in a different format, a longer history or a broker's comment to sit beside it, email enquiry@mortgageonefinance.co.uk or call 01202 155992 and we will send it.

If your rent is close to a mortgage payment and you want to know whether a lender would agree, call 01202 155992 or contact Mortgage One.

Back to Rates, Charts and Data

The information provided in this article is for general guidance only and does not constitute personal or regulated financial advice. If you'd like to understand what these moves could mean for you, speak to Mortgage One. We can explain your options and timings based on your specific circumstances.

FAQs

1. What is the average rent in the UK? The latest figure sits in the headline line of the chart above with the month it belongs to, read from the Price Index of Private Rents published by the Office for National Statistics. It measures what tenants pay across all existing tenancies, not just new lets, and a new figure is published each month.

2. How much should you pay on rent in the UK? A common budgeting guideline is to keep rent to around a third of gross income, and most letting agents' referencing checks ask for an annual income of at least 30 times the monthly rent, which is the same test written as a multiple. Above that level an agent will usually ask for a guarantor or rent paid in advance.

3. How much rent can I afford on £50k in the UK? On the referencing multiple most letting agents use, an annual income of at least 30 times the monthly rent, £50,000 supports a rent of about £1,666 a month. The stricter third-of-income budgeting rule points to around £1,389. Your own ceiling depends on your other commitments, which is also how a mortgage lender would look at the same income.

4. Is £900 a month rent a lot? It depends what it buys. £910 was the UK average when the official series began in January 2015, so £900 now sits below the current average carried in the chart above. The national figure spans every property type and every part of the UK, so the right comparison is with similar homes in the same area rather than the average alone.

5. Why do advertised rents look higher than the official average? Because portals measure advertised rents on new lets, which reprice to the market at once, while the official index measures what tenants pay across all existing tenancies, including those renewed below the open market. New-let measures run higher and move sooner, and the stock measure follows them with a lag.

6. What is the average rent increase per year in the UK? It varies year to year, and the chart's annual change view shows the published rate for every month since January 2015. The fastest annual rise in the official series was 9.1% in March 2024. There is no standard yearly increase: what a landlord can charge is set by the market and the terms of the tenancy.

7. Does a higher rent mean I can borrow more on a buy-to-let? Often, yes. Buy-to-let lenders size the loan on rental cover, testing that the rent clears the mortgage interest at a stressed rate by a set margin, so a higher supportable rent can carry a larger loan. The figure used is the lower of the agreed rent and the valuer's market rent. Mortgage One tests the cover across lenders before an application goes in.

8. Can I download the average rent data? Yes. The full monthly series from January 2015 downloads as a CSV file from the link in the citation section above, free to reuse with credit to Mortgage One and a link to this page. The underlying data is published by the Office for National Statistics under the Open Government Licence v3.0.