- The UK average room rent has reached an all-time high of £753 per month.
- Over the past five years, rents in the UK have risen 28% and in London by 37%.
- Regionally, Wales has seen the biggest year-on-year rent increase (+2.3%); Scotland's average room rent has hit a record high of £723 per month.
- Outside of London, the most expensive cities are Edinburgh, St Albans and Oxford, while Bradford and Hull are the cheapest.
Renting a room in the UK now costs £753 per month on average which - although only an increase of 0.8% on the previous year - is the highest figure on record, according to Q3 2025 data from flatshare site SpareRoom. UK rents passed the £700 mark in Q2 2023.
Renting a room in London now costs, on average, £995 per month - no change year on year but an increase from £980 per month on the previous quarter.
Since 2020, UK rents have risen 28% and London rents by 37%*. On a more positive note, supply in the flatshare market in Q3 is up 15% on the previous year, both across the UK and London, despite low confidence among landlords awaiting the passing of the Renters' Rights Bill into law.
Regionally, Wales saw the highest year-on-year increase in room rents, up 2.3% to £586 per month, followed by South West England (+1.5%). Rents in Scotland saw a year-on-year increase of 0.7% but, at £723 per month, the average rent here is now at a record high. The cheapest average rents can be found in the North East of England.
This table shows UK average room rents by region and YOY change:
| Region | Average monthly room rent Q3 2025 | Average monthly room rent Q3 2024 | YOY change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wales | £586 | £573 | 2.3% |
| South West England | £674 | £664 | 1.5% |
| East Anglia | £681 | £672 | 1.3% |
| West Midlands | £588 | £580 | 1.3% |
| North West England | £611 | £605 | 1.0% |
| South East (including outer London) | £749 | £741 | 1.0% |
| Yorkshire & Humberside | £561 | £557 | 0.8% |
| Scotland | £723 | £718 | 0.7% |
| East Midlands | £567 | £566 | 0.2% |
| North East England | £549 | £552 | -0.4% |
| Northern Ireland | £571 | £573 | -0.4% |
| London (inner) | £995 | £995 | -0.1% |
| Whole of UK | £753 | £747 | 0.8% |
| Whole of UK (excl. inner London) | £670 | £663 | 1.2% |
SpareRoom has reported rising demand for rooms to rent in commuter areas and suburban towns as more flatsharers are priced out of major cities.
Of the most popular towns and cities with the steepest year-on-year rent rises, several are key commuter areas for London: St Albans, just a 20-minute commute to St Pancras, Brentwood on the Elizabeth line, as well as Redhill and Basingstoke.
Keighley, just a half-hour train ride from Leeds, has seen rents rise 10% YOY. But at £574 per month, the average room rent is fast catching up to Leeds (£578 per month).
Places like Wolverhampton, Telford and Warrington have seen rents rise 6% in Q3. All three are commuter hubs to Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. Renting a room in Warrington now costs, on average, £589 per month, compared to £701 in Manchester which is only 22 minutes away by train. Birmingham's average rent is now £623 per month, but Wolverhampton's is £534 and Telford's is £560, and both are within an easy commuting distance.
Scottish market town Dumfries has seen the highest YOY rent increase (+12%). However, the average room rent here (£591pm) is still considerably lower than the average for Scotland (£723pm). In areas with thriving tourism sectors, and therefore a higher number of short-term holiday lets, renters face more extreme supply shortages, forcing up rents.
The table below shows the most popular towns and cities among flatsharers where rents have increased by more than 5% YOY:
| City | Average monthly room rent Q3 2025 | Average monthly room rent Q3 2024 | YOY change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dumfries | £591 | £527 | 12.1% |
| 2 | Taunton | £668 | £605 | 10.5% |
| 3 | Scunthorpe | £529 | £479 | 10.3% |
| 4 | Dorchester | £645 | £585 | 10.3% |
| 5 | St. Albans | £847 | £768 | 10.2% |
| 6 | Keighley | £574 | £521 | 10.1% |
| 7 | Bath | £816 | £741 | 10.1% |
| 8 | Carlisle | £574 | £526 | 9.1% |
| 9 | Cheadle | £740 | £680 | 8.8% |
| 10 | Londonderry | £612 | £564 | 8.6% |
| 11 | Cannock | £618 | £580 | 6.6% |
| 12 | Bury | £622 | £584 | 6.5% |
| 13 | Clacton-on-Sea | £658 | £619 | 6.3% |
| 14 | Wolverhampton | £534 | £502 | 6.3% |
| 15 | Redhill | £821 | £773 | 6.3% |
| 16 | Telford | £560 | £527 | 6.3% |
| 17 | Warrington | £589 | £555 | 6.2% |
| 18 | Wallasey | £540 | £511 | 5.8% |
| 19 | Ellesmere Port | £601 | £569 | 5.7% |
| 20 | Nuneaton | £562 | £533 | 5.6% |
| 21 | Brentwood | £788 | £748 | 5.4% |
| 22 | Eastleigh | £698 | £663 | 5.4% |
| 23 | Basingstoke | £674 | £641 | 5.2% |
| 24 | York | £755 | £718 | 5.1% |
Outside of London, Edinburgh, St Albans and Oxford are the most expensive cities in which to rent, while Bradford and Hull are the cheapest. The table below shows the UK's most and least expensive towns and cities outside of inner London:
| UK's most expensive towns/cities* | UK's least expensive towns/cities | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Town/City | Average monthly room rent Q3 2025 | Town/City | Average monthly room rent Q3 2025 |
| Twickenham | £927 | Bootle | £465 |
| Kingston upon Thames | £907 | Bradford | £470 |
| Edinburgh | £887 | Burnley | £473 |
| Barnet | £857 | Middlesbrough | £476 |
| St. Albans | £847 | Blackburn | £478 |
| Croydon | £834 | Stockton-on-Tees | £479 |
| Harrow | £823 | Huddersfield | £479 |
| Oxford | £823 | Barnsley | £487 |
| Redhill | £821 | Hull | £488 |
| Bromley | £820 | Grimsby | £491 |
*Excludes inner London
Matt Hutchinson, director at flatshare site SpareRoom, comments: “There aren't many people who can say their wages have risen 28% over the past five years. And when pay rises aren't in line with rent increases, keeping within the threshold of affordability - i.e. spending no more than 30% of your income on rent - quickly becomes impossible. We need to address the huge problem of chronic undersupply in the rental market creatively. Encouraging more people to rent out unused rooms in their homes to lodgers, would offer a desperately needed supply injection. There are around 28M empty bedrooms in England, Wales and Scotland. Freeing up just 5% of them would provide affordable accommodation for 1.4M people.”