Average London rents

The average rent for a two-bedroom private rented house in London is £1,730 compared with £820 across England. Two-bedroom homes to rent in London at the bottom quarter of the market are £1,250 a month – more than twice the average for England at £500.

The differences between the capital and the rest of the country are less pronounced for social renters. For registered social landlord (housing association) tenants, the average rent on a two-bedroom home in London at £550 is £150 higher than in England as a whole. For tenants of local authorities, London is £110 a month more expensive at £470. Social rents for two-bedroom homes are less than a third the cost of private rents in London.

* In the month up to Dec 1st, 2016 (not seasonally adjusted). 

The growth in private rents over the past five years has also been considerably higher in London than the average across England, at 20% compared with 8%. The cheapest fifth of rents have increased faster than private rents overall. Social rents have also grown significantly, albeit from a considerably lower base. Rents for local authority social housing have increased 30%; housing association rents have increased 26% in London and 19% across England.

London also has much higher house prices than England as a whole. The average price for all dwellings sold in London*  at the end of 2016 was £474,000, compared with the average for the whole of England of £232,000. House prices in London rose 5% compared with prices a year earlier, and 38% compared with five years earlier. London prices have risen every year apart from 2009.

Average house prices are higher in every London borough than in England as a whole, but there is huge variation across boroughs. The average house price in Kensington & Chelsea at the end of 2016 was more than £1.3 million, while in Barking & Dagenham it was £285,000.