The London Rent Review
Annual rent inflation by English region — year to June 2026
London’s year so far — annual inflation, each month of 2026
London rents rose 2.2% in the year to June 2026. That is still the lowest of the nine English regions, and still well under the 3.4% recorded across England. It is also the fastest London has run all year — up from 1.1% in January. The market that looked stalled in the spring is firming.
The boroughs moved further than the average did. Camden has almost stopped falling: −2.2% at the last print, −0.5% now, after two consecutive monthly rises of 1.3% and 1.2%. At the other end, Newham cooled from 5.2% to 4.2% while Greenwich firmed to 5.0%. The gap between our fastest and slowest borough narrowed from 7.5 points to 5.5.
Last month we wrote that one London was cooling and another was still climbing. This print says the two are converging — the cooling has stopped, the climbing has slowed. For a valuation that matters more than the 0.2-point move in the headline. A Camden renewal priced off June’s data is a different conversation from one priced off May’s. A Newham renewal is no longer riding a 5% market. We price off the borough and the bedroom, never off the regional headline.
The spread the average hides — annual change by borough, year to June 2026
| The boroughs we work | Average | Annual | 1 bed | 2 bed | 3 bed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greenwich | £1,967 | +5.0% | £1,541 | £1,906 | £2,210 |
| Newham | £1,928 | +4.2% | £1,630 | £1,993 | £2,209 |
| Tower Hamlets | £2,429 | +2.7% | £1,972 | £2,394 | £2,721 |
| Camden | £2,791 | -0.5% | £2,032 | £2,593 | £3,024 |
If your property is in inner, prime London, the softening we flagged in June has stopped — Camden has now risen two months running. Don’t cut a renewal figure to chase last month’s data. If it’s in an outer regeneration borough, the market is still ahead of the London average but no longer accelerating: Newham’s annual rate has come off a full point in a single print. In both cases the bedroom count matters as much as the postcode. Bring us the address and we’ll price the property, not the region.
The ONS print
The official record, from settled tenancies. Authoritative, but roughly six weeks behind the street. Everything above comes from here.
Asking rents
Where new listings are being pitched today. Weeks ahead of the ONS, but a wish, not a deal. We read it as a direction, not a level.
Our own ledger
What our own applicants and lets are doing this week — time-to-let, offers against asking, demand per viewing. Ours alone. Read in at sign-off.
| Edition | The call | Result | Against the print |
|---|---|---|---|
| No. 01 · June 2026 release | London annual rent inflation holds in the 1.9–2.3% band at the 22 July print (June data). | HELD | Printed 2.2% — inside the band, at the top of it. The band held; our stated risk skew did not. We flagged the risk as being to the downside, from Camden’s fall spreading into neighbouring prime. Camden did the opposite and rebounded to −0.5%. |
Sources & method
- All figures: ONS Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR) — the successor to the Index of Private Housing Rental Prices, an official statistic since 20 May 2026.
- Release covered: 22 July 2026. Reference period: data to June 2026. Next release: 19 August 2026.
- Geography: national to local-authority level; borough figures are the ONS series for each named London borough.
- Method: ONS estimates rents by hedonic double-imputation across the private rental stock. We report its figures and add our reading; we do not compute an index of our own.
- Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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Previous editions — each kept at its own permanent URL, unaltered after sign-off:
No. 01 · June 2026 release — data to May 2026
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