UK statistics
Average UK Rent 2026: ONS Price Index Breakdown
The ONS Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR) put average UK monthly rent at £1,383 in May 2026 - up 3.3% in the year. Annual growth has cooled from the 8-9% peaks of 2023-24 but remains above CPI. England leads at £1,442, Wales £836, Scotland £1,009, Northern Ireland £876.
Headline numbers
- Average UK monthly rent
- £1,383
- Annual rent growth
- +3.3%
- Highest local authority rent
- £3,591
ONS PIPR May 2026
12m to May 2026
Kensington and Chelsea
The detail
The ONS Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR) put the average UK monthly private rent at £1,383 in May 2026 - up 3.3% over the previous 12 months. Annual rent inflation has cooled noticeably from the 8-9% peaks seen in 2023-24, but still sits well above the 2.5-3% long-term average and consistently above CPI.
Regional split (May 2026): England £1,442 (+3.4% year-on-year), Wales £836 (+4.7%), Scotland £1,009 (+1.0%), and Northern Ireland £876 (+3.3% to March 2026). Inside England, annual rent inflation was highest in the North East (5.9%) and lowest in London (2.0%) - London cooling because the absolute level is already so high that further rises are bumping into affordability ceilings.
Local authority extremes: Kensington and Chelsea is the most expensive UK rental market at £3,591/month average. Excluding London, Oxford leads at £1,958/month. Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, is cheapest at £551/month - around one-sixth of the Kensington figure.
By property type: detached homes £1,572/month, flats and maisonettes £1,351. By bedroom count: 4-bed-plus £2,056, 1-bed £1,123. The 4-bed premium has narrowed sharply post-2023 as family-formation activity slowed and 1-bed flat demand from younger renters held up.
Sources
- ONS - Private rent and house prices, UK: May 2026 (retrieved 2026-06-21)
- ONS - Index of Private Housing Rental Prices reference tables (retrieved 2026-06-21)
- Our methodology & full source list →
Related statistics
- Median Household Income
The median UK household has disposable income of £36,700 per year after tax and benefits, equivalised for household size (ONS, financial year ending 2024).
- Real Wages
After 16 years of stagnation, UK real-terms weekly pay finally surpassed its 2008 pre-financial-crisis peak in early 2024 - but only just, and partly due to nominal wage growth outpacing CPI for the first sustained period since the Great Recession.
- Poverty Line
The UK relative poverty line is 60% of contemporary median household income - approximately £21,000/year for a couple after housing costs. Absolute poverty fixes this threshold to a 2010/11 baseline uprated by inflation.