London average private rent, July 2026: what the ONS August print says (and what it hides)
Short answer: London's average private rent was £2,317 a month in July 2026, up 3.0% on the year and 0.63% on the month. That is the sixth consecutive monthly rise. London is the second-slowest English region for rent inflation in this print, behind only the South East. The ONS published the figure on 19 August 2026.
What is the average private rent in London right now?
£2,317 per calendar month, for July 2026 data, published by the ONS on 19 August 2026. The index level is 126.58. Annual inflation is 3.0% (2.989% unrounded); the month-on-month move is +0.63%.
The direction matters more than the level. London has now risen for six months straight:
- April 2026: £2,290, +2.0% annual
- May 2026: £2,294, +2.0%
- June 2026: £2,302, +2.2%
- July 2026: £2,317, +3.0%
The annual rate has climbed 1.0 percentage point in three months while the cash figure moved £27. Read those two numbers together: the monthly pace is modest, and the annual rate is moving faster than the cash rent because of what was happening a year ago.
How does London compare with England and the UK?
England averaged £1,451 (+3.8%) and the UK £1,393 (+3.7%). London is the most expensive region in cash and one of the slowest in growth. The full English regional picture, annual change:
North East +6.3% (£783) · North West +5.7% (£965) · Yorkshire and The Humber +5.0% (£864) · West Midlands +4.5% (£974) · South West +4.5% (£1,236) · East of England +3.7% (£1,285) · East Midlands +3.6% (£918) · London +3.0% (£2,317) · South East +2.9% (£1,419).
Only the South East is growing more slowly than London. Rent inflation has moved north; London's cash premium has not.
What is the average by bedroom count in London?
| Property size | London average, July 2026 |
|---|---|
| One bedroom | £1,752 |
| Two bedrooms | £2,218 |
| Three bedrooms | £2,623 |
| Four or more bedrooms | £3,614 |
Borough level moves further again. Across the four boroughs we track monthly in The London Rent Review: Camden £2,800 (+0.5% annual), Greenwich £1,980 (+5.6%), Tower Hamlets £2,439 (+3.0%), Newham £1,927 (+2.8%, with a slightly negative month). One number, £2,317, is covering a spread from +0.5% to +5.6%.
What does PIPR actually measure?
The Price Index of Private Rents measures rent inflation across new and existing tenancies. The ONS states it reflects "price changes for all privately rented UK properties, not only newly-advertised rental properties." Where updated data for a property is not available, PIPR holds the rent constant for up to 14 months.
That is the right design for a national inflation measure and the wrong input for a pricing decision. Most of the £2,317 is rent agreed months or years ago and still running. A landlord bringing a flat to market next Monday is competing in this week's market, against this week's competing stock, not against a stock average with a fourteen-month tail in it. We cover the mechanics in full in how the ONS private rent index works.
We won't price your flat from a regional average. We price from the live comparable set for that building, that floor, that specification and that week — the method we set out in how much rent can I get for my London flat. For a new-build first let there is often no history to average at all, which is why new-build pricing is its own discipline.
The whole 32-borough table for this month, by bedroom count, sits on the Rent Check, beside our own live book for your postcode district.
What are we calling for the 16 September release?
The next ONS print lands on 16 September 2026 and covers August data. We expect London annual inflation to print between 2.9% and 3.5%.
Last month we called 2.1% to 2.6%. It printed 3.0% — above our range. We were wrong, and we publish our misses, because a forecast nobody scores is not a forecast. We widened the band deliberately. The direction was right and the range was too tight. Momentum supports it: six consecutive monthly rises, and a monthly pace that annualises to 7.8%. What would prove us wrong is Newham, which has shed 2.4 points in two prints and whose monthly reading has turned marginally negative.
Sources
- ONS, Private rent and house prices, UK: August 2026 (released 19 August 2026; July 2026 rent data): https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/privaterentandhousepricesuk/august2026
- ONS, Price Index of Private Rents, UK: monthly price statistics (dataset): https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/datasets/priceindexofprivaterentsukmonthlypricestatistics
- ONS, Price Index of Private Rents QMI (methodology): https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/housing/methodologies/priceindexofprivaterentsqmi
- Harvey W James, The London Rent Review, Edition 03: https://www.harveywjames.com/london-rent-review
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