Advertised rents fell 0.7 percent in the final quarter of 2025, the lowest annual growth since 2020, while a flatshare room costs close to a thousand pounds
London renters have grown used to reading that rents are going up. The most recent authoritative snapshot I could read says something more complicated. Rightmove’s Rental Trends Tracker for the final quarter of 2025, released on 15 January 2026, puts the average advertised rent in London at 2,716 pounds a month, down 0.7 percent, or 20 pounds, in the quarter. Annual growth was 0.8 percent, the lowest since 2020. Outside London, the average advertised rent fell 1.1 percent in the quarter to 1,370 pounds a month, though rents still rose 2.2 percent over 2025, the lowest annual growth at year end since 2018.
An Important Caveat
These are advertised rents, meaning the asking price in listings, not the rent in an existing tenancy. A tenant who signed a lease two years ago may be paying less than the advertised figure for a similar flat, and a tenant renewing may face a different calculation. Rightmove’s figures are a useful guide to what new tenants are asked to pay, and they say little about what established tenants are paying now. The report also covers the end of 2025, so it is a few months old by the time of this column, and a reader needing today’s figures should look at the latest release.
Demand Cooled, Supply Is Still Short
The tracker reports that the 2025 average was ten enquiries per available rental home, down from fourteen in 2024 but above six in 2019. London averaged seven enquiries per property, against sixteen in the North West and Scotland. Available rental homes were 9 percent higher than a year earlier but 33 percent lower than ten years ago. That combination explains the shape of the market: a little more supply and a little less demand have slowed growth, but the stock of rental homes remains well below where it was a decade ago.
Landlords appear to be staying in the market. UK Finance data to October shows new buy-to-let mortgages for rental purchases up 13 percent and remortgages up 23 percent, which Rightmove reads as a sign of both new investment and landlords keeping existing homes. The average two-year buy-to-let mortgage rate for a landlord with a 25 percent deposit was 4.84 percent, down from 5.51 percent a year earlier. Cheaper borrowing eases the pressure on landlords to raise rents or sell.
Our look at how London landlords hold the keys to the city’s greatest anxiety covers the human side of that arithmetic. A tenant’s biggest monthly cost is a landlord’s biggest asset, and the two live in a state of mutual wariness.
The Forecast
Rightmove predicts that average rents will rise a further 2 percent in 2026. Colleen Babcock of Rightmove said: ‘There is still a long-term shortage of available rental homes.’ Sarah Leslie of Jackson-Stops Sevenoaks said rents are likely to continue rising at a measured pace, supported by limited supply and ongoing demand. Christina Harris of Cheffins said supply remains far behind where it needs to be. The estate agents quoted have an interest in the property market, and a tenant should read their optimism with that in mind.
Sharing the Cost
For many Londoners, the answer to rent is a flatshare. A January 2026 blog post from the flatshare platform Right Room says the average flatshare room rent is close to 995 pounds a month, and that room rents were nearing 1,000 pounds a month as of late 2025. It says room rents rose around 37 percent over five years, while between April 2024 and April 2025 London rents rose only about 1.5 percent, with some boroughs showing flat or slightly falling rents. It also says flatsharers are increasingly looking at outer London and well-connected suburbs, which can moderate prices in the inner areas. The post gives the average private rent across London, for all property types, as more than 2,700 pounds a month in mid-2025.
That post is promotional content from a flatshare business, and it does not name most of its data sources, so its figures deserve more caution than Rightmove’s. It does not give North London figures or name the boroughs with flat or falling rents, so I cannot say how Camden, Islington or Haringey compare. A reader after local numbers should check a current listings search.
What It Means in Practice
For a tenant, the slower growth is a small mercy. It does not make London affordable, but it reduces the pace at which it is becoming less so. For a landlord, it suggests that raising the rent every year is no longer automatic, and that a vacant property may need a better price or a better kitchen.
The practical advice is old and sound. Compare similar listings before you agree to a figure. Ask what is included. Read the contract and the deposit protection details. And consider timing: the market is usually busier in late summer and slower in winter, so a tenant who can wait may have more room to negotiate.
Our report on the city’s response to rising rent captures the political mood, and our guide to Kentish Town’s practical poetry reminds readers that the best neighbourhoods are often decided by who can afford to stay in them.
For more on London living, see our business and politics guide, and for the wider magazine visit Bohiney Magazine. For a lighter view of the rental market, The Daily Squib is happy to treat a damp wall as a feature. The fair summary is that rents are rising more slowly, and that a slower rise from a very high level is still a rise.
SOURCE: bohiney.com
