"Rental growth has slowed from the peaks seen over the past two years, but the underlying pressure has not gone away"
- Alex Upton - Hampshire Trust Bank
Average UK monthly private rental prices rose 3.4% in the 12 months to March 2026, reaching £1,377, according to provisional ONS figures. That marks a slowdown from 3.6% growth in the year to February 2026 and is the lowest annual inflation rate since March 2022.
National breakdown
The average monthly rent is now £45 higher than a year ago. Across the nations, England saw average rents reach £1,434 (up 3.4%), the lowest annual rate in four years, while Wales recorded £830 (up 4.8%) and Scotland £1,022 (up 2.1%), also the lowest annual rise for more than four years.
Scotland's rental inflation has been falling steadily since hitting a record high of 11.7% in August 2023. In Northern Ireland, average rents rose to £880 (up 5.0%) in the 12 months to January 2026.
Regional picture
Regional divergence within England remained stark. The North East recorded the highest annual inflation at 6.5%, though that was down from 7.6% in February. London stayed at the other end of the scale, with inflation unchanged at 1.7%, though average rents in the capital remained the highest of any English region at £2,280 per month. The North East had the lowest average rent at £772.
At a local level, Kensington and Chelsea topped the table at £3,599 per month, while Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland was the most affordable at £554. Outside London, Oxford remained the priciest area at £1,952 per month.
Rents by property type showed detached homes averaging £1,569 and flats and maisonettes the lowest at £1,345.
Properties with four or more bedrooms averaged £2,049 per month, compared with £1,117 for one-bedroom homes.
Industry reaction
"The most comprehensive of all the rental market surveys shows that rents are still rising but not as quickly as previously, partly due to worries about inflation having an impact on affordability," said Jeremy Leaf, north London estate agent and a former RICS residential chairman.
"However, rents may have dropped further if they weren't supported by a shortage of stock, exacerbated by landlords leaving the sector ahead of the introduction of the new Renters' Rights Act at the beginning of May."
Tom Bill, head of UK residential research at Knight Frank, said, “Although rental value growth has been declining, the Renters’ Rights Act could increase pressure on rents upwards as landlords mitigate higher risks around repossessing their property or guaranteeing rental income. Any further reduction in supply as landlords sell up could also increase the financial squeeze on tenants.”
Alex Upton, managing director, specialist mortgages and bridging finance at Hampshire Trust Bank, pointed to a broader shift in landlord behaviour. "Rental growth has slowed from the peaks seen over the past two years, but the underlying pressure has not gone away. Demand continues to outstrip supply in many parts of the market, particularly for well-located and better-quality stock, and that imbalance is likely to persist while delivery of new housing remains below what is needed."
Upton noted that landlord confidence has changed. "Expansion is no longer the default response to rising demand. Investors are becoming more selective and more deliberate in how they deploy capital. The focus has shifted towards resilience, refining portfolios, strengthening income and moving towards assets that can perform more consistently under tighter regulatory and cost conditions."
She added that this shift was reshaping funding requirements. "Landlords are not simply adding new properties; they are restructuring. This includes releasing capital selectively, consolidating borrowing and repositioning portfolios to reflect changing margins and longer-term strategy, often through more complex, transitional transactions. It requires lenders who can assess cases on their merits and structure funding around how portfolios operate in practice."
On the importance of lender consistency, Upton said: "In this environment, clarity and consistency matter. Where funding remains accessible and decisions are grounded in a clear understanding of the underlying strategy, confidence holds. Where it does not, it falls away quickly. Over time, that feeds directly into supply and availability. Without that stability, the rental market does not rebalance; it tightens."
"Rental inflation has slowed, and this will be welcome news for renters," said Richard Donnell, executive director of research at Zoopla. "For landlords, rents rising at over 3% is positive, but for some this may not be enough to offset the extra costs and regulation from the Renters Rights Act, which starts from 1 May. Low investment in growing the stock of rented homes is supporting rents rising faster than house prices. Policies to grow the supply of rented homes are needed to moderate rental inflation and ease cost-of-living pressure on renters."
Nathan Emerson, CEO of Propertymark, said the figures reflected a deeper structural problem. "Rising rental prices continue to reflect the chronic imbalance between supply and demand in the private rented sector. Letting agents across the UK are consistently reporting high tenant demand alongside a shortage of available properties, which is inevitably placing upward pressure on rents."
Emerson added, "Propertymark's latest member data shows that an average of seven applicants are registering per available property. This is not a short-term trend; it reflects years of underinvestment in the sector and growing regulatory pressures, which are discouraging landlords from entering or remaining in the market."
"If rents are to stabilise, measures that support supply must be prioritised, including support for landlords and a regulatory environment that encourages long-term investment. Without this, affordability challenges for tenants will likely only intensify."
