Quarterly data series · Edition 1 · Q3 2026
England Rent Increase Index
A rent index for England, measured from live listings every quarter: the England-wide average asking rent, rent inflation by region, and a ranked table of average rents across 30 towns and cities. Free to read and free to cite.
The name is literal. Challenge a rent increase in England and the tribunal sets the rent at the open-market rate for your home or the landlord's proposal, whichever is lower: the market is the yardstick, and this page is that market at town level. Every figure is England only, and there is a reason there is no UK-wide equivalent.
The average asking rent across the 30 English towns and cities the index tracks, from 8,866 live listings. The median tracked town sits at £1,246; London is the dearest at £2,854 and Hull the cheapest at £804.
This is the first edition of the index, so it sets the baseline rather than measuring a change. Quarter-on-quarter comparisons for England and for every tracked town begin with edition 2. Until then, rent inflation by English region below is the only rise-and-fall figure here, and nothing is estimated to fill the gap.
Rent inflation by English region: how fast rents are rising
This is the index's honest answer to how much rents are going up. Alongside our own town-level sampling, the index records PropertyData's national series of rent inflation by English region. Regional figures smooth over big differences between neighbouring towns, so read them together with the town table below.
Town-level, quarter-on-quarter rent increases join this page at edition 2, once there are two captures to compare against each other.
| Region | Rent inflation |
|---|---|
| East Midlands | +0.7% |
| East of England | +0.1% |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | -0.2% |
| West Midlands Region | -0.3% |
| England | -0.6% |
| North West | -0.8% |
| South East | -0.8% |
| South West | -0.8% |
| North East | -1.2% |
| London | -2.1% |
Average rent by town, ranked
Every figure is derived from live listings sampled this quarter: the average and median monthly asking rent and the number of listings behind them. Each town links to a live page with rents by bedroom count, the local range and the market temperature, refreshed daily.
| Town | Average rent | Median | Listings |
|---|---|---|---|
| London | £2,854 | £2,600 | 3820 |
| Brighton | £2,308 | £2,249 | 100 |
| Bournemouth | £2,173 | £2,201 | 100 |
| Guildford | £2,020 | £1,751 | 707 |
| Oxford | £2,007 | £1,989 | 175 |
| York | £1,688 | £1,495 | 100 |
| Bristol | £1,507 | £1,287 | 100 |
| Portsmouth | £1,484 | £1,300 | 1540 |
| Exeter | £1,431 | £1,255 | 100 |
| Manchester | £1,414 | £1,313 | 100 |
| Luton | £1,400 | £1,400 | 100 |
| Leeds | £1,358 | £1,148 | 100 |
| Northampton | £1,358 | £1,352 | 100 |
| Milton Keynes | £1,297 | £1,248 | 100 |
| Cambridge | £1,251 | £1,099 | 100 |
| Newcastle | £1,240 | £1,101 | 100 |
| Reading | £1,236 | £1,224 | 100 |
| Southampton | £1,210 | £949 | 100 |
| Birmingham | £1,159 | £1,122 | 100 |
| Nottingham | £1,109 | £997 | 100 |
| Coventry | £1,090 | £1,101 | 100 |
| Derby | £1,087 | £949 | 100 |
| Norwich | £1,081 | £897 | 100 |
| Leicester | £1,064 | £997 | 100 |
| Stoke-on-Trent | £1,043 | £823 | 100 |
| Plymouth | £992 | £923 | 100 |
| Sheffield | £930 | £849 | 100 |
| Bradford | £920 | £862 | 100 |
| Liverpool | £877 | £823 | 100 |
| Hull | £804 | £802 | 124 |
Scope
Why this is an England index, not a UK one
Rent increases are not a UK-wide subject. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each run private renting under their own legislation, so a single UK rent index would average four different legal frameworks into one number and tell an individual tenant very little about the one that governs their own home.
- Scotland
- A private residential tenancy rent increase is usually referred for adjudication to Rent Service Scotland, under a process separate from the English tribunal route.
- Wales
- Renting is governed by the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, which uses occupation contracts and its own rules on varying rent.
- Northern Ireland
- Private tenancies run under Northern Ireland's own legislation again, separate from all three of the others.
England has its own regime too: since 1 May 2026 a rent increase on an assured periodic tenancy runs through a Section 13 notice on Form 4A, at most once a year, with the First-tier Tribunal as the place to challenge it. That is the law every figure here is measured against, so every figure here is England only. And the comparison that actually decides an English rent increase is not a national average at all: it is the open-market rent for a home like yours, which is what the town pages and the postcode calculator are for.
Facing a rent increase?
National and town averages are the backdrop; your case turns on your own postcode and your own notice. Compare your rent with live market data for your street, then test the notice itself against the legal rules. Both checks are free.
England rent FAQs
What is the average rent in England?
Across the 30 English towns and cities tracked by the RentSOS England Rent Increase Index, the average asking rent is £1,380 per month in Q3 2026, computed from 8,866 live listings. This is an unweighted average of town-level averages, so London counts once rather than dominating by volume, and it reflects advertised rents for homes on the market now, which typically run higher than what sitting tenants pay.
How is the England Rent Increase Index calculated?
Each quarter RentSOS samples live lettings listings for 30 English towns and cities, gathered via PropertyData from Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket. For every town we compute the average and median monthly asking rent, the central 80% range and per-bedroom averages, and store only those derived figures. The England headline is the unweighted average of the town averages. Editions are captured once a quarter, and each edition states its capture date and sample size.
Is there a UK rent index?
Not one that would tell a renter much. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each govern private renting under their own legislation: an English rent increase runs through a Section 13 notice on Form 4A and, if challenged, the First-tier Tribunal; in Scotland a private residential tenancy rent increase is usually referred for adjudication to Rent Service Scotland; Wales operates under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016; Northern Ireland has its own private tenancy rules again. A single UK rent index would average four legal systems together and answer none of them. This index is England only, and the figure that decides an English rent increase is the open-market rent for a home like yours, not a national average.
Which English towns have the highest and lowest average rent?
In the Q3 2026 edition, London has the highest average asking rent at £2,854 per month, and Hull the lowest at £804 per month. The full table on this page ranks all 30 tracked towns, and each links to a live town page with rents by bedroom count and the local market temperature.
What is the average rent increase per year in England?
There is no single official figure, and the index does not invent one. The closest honest answer is rent inflation by English region: PropertyData's national series currently ranges from -2.1% in London to 0.7% in East Midlands. Those are regional rates of change and they hide a lot of variation between towns, which is why the index tracks town-level asking rents each quarter alongside the regional series. For any individual tenancy, what matters legally is not the regional trend but whether a proposed rent exceeds the open-market rate for that home.
Can my landlord put my rent up to match the average?
Not automatically. Since 1 May 2026, rent on an assured periodic tenancy in England can only rise through a Section 13 notice on Form 4A, at most once a year, with at least two months' notice, and the legal ceiling is the open-market rent for a home like yours, not a national or town average. If the proposed figure looks too high, you can challenge it at the First-tier Tribunal, and the tribunal cannot set a rent higher than the figure your landlord proposed. RentSOS checks a notice against the legal rules for free.
Methodology
The England Rent Increase Index is compiled by RentSOS once a quarter from live lettings listings, gathered via PropertyData from Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket, for 30 English towns and cities (London is sampled as a composite of eight postcode districts). For each town we derive and store the average and median monthly asking rent, the central 80% range (10th to 90th percentile) and per-bedroom averages where at least three listings support them; raw listing data is never retained. The England headline is the unweighted average of the town averages. Rent inflation by English region comes from PropertyData's national series. Figures are asking rents for homes advertised in the capture window, England only, and each edition states its capture date and sample size. The index is free to cite with a link to this page.