SpareRoom Rental Index
Average rents are updated every quarter - last updated April 2026
UK rents flatlining
Renting a room in the UK (Q1 2026) costs £747 per month on average, almost no change on the previous year. While stable rents are better than rising rents, it still doesn’t necessarily make them affordable. Huge demand after the pandemic caused rents to soar, and they’ve remained stubbornly high since.
Biggest change regionally
The South West of England has seen the biggest change of any region: rents here are up 1.5% on the previous year to £677 per month.
However, six UK cities have seen year-on-year rent rises of 6% or higher: Carlisle (+8%), Inverness (+7%), Gloucester (+6%), Durham (+6%), Worcester (+6%) and Salisbury (+6%).
Average rents across the UK and how they’ve changed:
| Region | Average monthly room rent | Annual change |
| East Anglia | £674 | -0.6% |
| East Midlands | £568 | 0.6% |
| North East | £549 | -0.1% |
| North West | £610 | 0.5% |
| Northern Ireland | £568 | 0.6% |
| Scotland | £673 | -0.4% |
| South East | £744 | -0.1% |
| South West | £677 | 1.5% |
| Wales | £588 | 0.8% |
| West Midlands | £585 | -0.1% |
| Yorkshire and Humberside | £560 | 0.3% |
| London | £978 | -0.5% |
| UK | £747 | 0.1% |
| UK (excl London) | £668 | 0.5% |
Only 5 London postcodes have sub-£800 rents
The average room rent for London is now £978 per month, down 0.5% on the previous year, but this doesn’t reflect what’s going on at postcode level. Only five London postcodes still have average room rents below £800 per month and all are in East or North postcode areas.
Average rents have changed year on year in the eight inner London postcode areas:
| London regions | Average monthly room rent | Annual change |
| E | £937 | -1.5% |
| EC | £1,228 | 2.0% |
| N | £941 | -0.5% |
| NW | £978 | -1.2% |
| SE | £948 | 0.3% |
| SW | £1,033 | -0.2% |
| W | £1,049 | 1.3% |
| WC | £1,257 | -3.0% |
| London | £978 | -0.5% |
| UK | £747 | 0.1% |
| UK (excl London) | £668 | 0.5% |
Demand for rooms has dropped
Demand for rooms in the capital has dropped 12% on the previous year as room supply has increased by 4.8%. Could this be a sign that priced-out renters are falling out of love with London?
W8 (Holland Park), NW7 (Mill Hill), SE4 (Brockley) and SE19 (Crystal Palace) have seen the highest year-on-year rent rises in the capital.
London postcodes that have seen the biggest rent increases:
| London postcodes | Average monthly room rent | Annual change |
| W8 (Holland Park) | £1,528 | 9.6% |
| NW7 (Mill Hill) | £929 | 8.5% |
| SE4 (Brockley) | £904 | 7.5% |
| SE19 (Crystal Palace) | £872 | 6.8% |
| SE15 (Peckham) | £973 | 5.9% |
| NW5 (Kentish Town) | £1,067 | 5.8% |
| SW14 (Mortlake) | £873 | 5.7% |
| E8 (Dalston) | £1,128 | 5.4% |
| SE24 (Herne Hill) | £959 | 5.3% |
| N3 (Finchley) | £948 | 5.1% |
UK’s cheapest towns and cities
These are the cheapest towns and cities to rent in the UK (outside of London):
| Town/City | Average monthly room rent |
| Stockton-on-Tees | £459 |
| Burnley | £469 |
| Middlesbrough | £472 |
| Huddersfield | £484 |
| Bradford | £488 |
| Barnsley | £490 |
| Scunthorpe | £497 |
| Craigavon | £497 |
| Grimsby | £498 |
| Blackburn | £499 |
UK’s most expensive towns and cities
These are the most expensive towns and cities to rent in the UK (outside of London):
| Town/City | Average monthly room rent |
| Twickenham | £902 |
| Kingston upon Thames | £884 |
| Esher | £855 |
| Barnet | £850 |
| Epsom | £825 |
| Bath | £821 |
| Oxford | £821 |
| Staines | £816 |
| St.Albans | £816 |
| Brentwood | £812 |
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Methodology
SpareRoom’s Quarterly Rental Index data compares data from Q1 2026 with Q1 2025, based on more than 400,000 UK room ads across both periods. Rents are inclusive of bills and based on asking prices.
Postcodes/towns/cities with a sample size of less than 25 were excluded. ‘Inner London’ data covers E, EC, N, NW, SE, SW, W & WC postcodes. In Q2 2025 a new limitation was added to the dataset, with rooms priced at under £150 per month filtered out.
Every quarter we analyse hundreds of thousands of room rents for the SpareRoom rental index, giving you average rents and rent increases and declines across London and the UK.