The typical cost of renting in London has increased by £559 a month in just four years, analysis has revealed.
Property portal Rightmove found that the average asking rent in the capital in the second quarter of this year was £2,567.
This is up from £2,008 in the spring of 2019, meaning prices have soared by almost 28 per cent in the period dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic, Brexit and a prime ministerial merry-go-round.
Swallowing up take-home pay
The average cost of renting in inner London is now £3,059 per month, Rightmove found. This equates to £36,708 a year — or just less than the average London salary before tax.
For someone earning £80,000 per year and paying standard taxes, the average inner London rent would be around two thirds of their take-home pay, according to an online calculator.
Inner London asking rents have risen by 14 per cent in a year and 26 per cent since spring 2019, the report found.
Tenants in outer London haven't had it any easier, with typical listings now at £2,206, up 14 per cent from 12 months ago and an increase of almost 30 per cent in four years.
Top five London areas for rent rises in the past year
Area |
Average rent Q2 2023 |
Annual increase |
Whetstone, Barnet |
£2.047 |
32% |
Wembley, Brent |
£2,184 |
30% |
Tottenham, Haringey |
£2,174 |
29% |
Kingston, Kingston-upon-Thames |
£2,239 |
26% |
Kingsbury, Barnet |
£2,140 |
26% |
Source: Rightmove
Whetstone has seen the strongest price growth in the past year, average rents in the Barnet district rose by almost a third to £2,047 in the second quarter of 2023. Wembley and Tottenham complete the top three for fastest-rising tenancy costs over the last 12 months.
Leila Parsa, assistant head of lettings at Hamptons in Whetstone, said the agents had seen “huge demand” from tenants.
“Whetstone is like a London version of St. Albans,” she added. “It’s a friendly place with a real community feel and has a great high street. It is also considered a very green area with great parks and walks.
“New people coming to Whetstone tend to be young families moving to within local school catchment areas, young professionals moving from inner London looking to be somewhere a little bit more leafy to raise a family and we also get a lot of overseas tenants, particularly corporate tenants from Hong Kong relocating for work.”
Five cheapest places to rent in London
Area |
Average rent in Q2 2023 |
West Wickham, Bromley |
£1,411 |
Biggin Hill, Bromley |
£1,420 |
Chessington, Kingston-upon-Thames |
£1,425 |
Chadwell Heath, Redbridge |
£1,427 |
Bexleyheath, Bexley |
£1,430 |
Source: Rightmove
Some pockets of relative affordability remain, predominately south of the river.
West Wickham and Biggin Hill in the borough of Bromley were the cheapest places to rent last quarter, according to Rightmove, with only Chadwell Heath representing north London in the top five.
Nationwide, the gap between supply and demand of rental homes narrowed slightly, with property availability up seven per cent from a year earlier but still 42 per cent below 2019 levels.
With landlords expressing concern about government sentiment, rising taxation and compliance requirements, more than one in seven properties currently up for sale on Rightmove were previously rented.
Rightmove director of property science Tim Bannister said: “With a long way to go to catch up with pre-pandemic levels of stock, there will continue to be more tenants looking to move than properties for them to move to for a while yet.
"Average asking rents for new tenants have risen at a rapid pace since the pandemic, reflecting the significant increase in demand, which is driven by a combination of factors including changed housing needs, such as space to work from home.
"Landlords are currently having to navigate a multitude of challenges, but the data suggests it remains important to build long-term relationships with good tenants, with the majority of tenants choosing to stay in their property for longer than two years.”
