Private rent and house prices, UK: December 2024

• Average UK private rents increased by 9.1% in the 12 months to November 2024 (provisional estimate); this is up from 8.7% in the 12 months to October 2024.
• Average rents increased to £1,362 (9.3%) in England, £772 (8.0%) in Wales, and £980 (6.5%) in Scotland, in the 12 months to November 2024.
• In Northern Ireland, average rents increased by 9.0% in the 12 months to September 2024.
• In England, rents inflation was highest in London (11.6%) and lowest in Yorkshire and The Humber (5.7%), in the 12 months to November 2024.
• Average UK house prices increased by 3.4%, to £292,000, in the 12 months to October 2024 (provisional estimate); this annual growth rate is up from 2.8% in the 12 months to September 2024.
• Average house prices increased in England to £309,000 (3.0%), in Wales to £222,000 (4.0%), and in Scotland to £197,000 (5.5%), in the 12 months to October 2024.

Although still lower than historically, the total transaction volumes and new build volumes available to calculate UK House Price Index (HPI) estimates have increased recently.

We are developing our Northern Ireland private rent statistics and aim to use our Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR) methodology for Northern Ireland from March 2025. This will enable us to produce average rent levels for Northern Ireland and the UK, and comparisons with Great Britain.

Average UK private rents increased by 9.1% in the 12 months to November 2024 (provisional estimate). This was up from 8.7% in the 12 months to October 2024 but was below the record-high annual rise of 9.2% in March 2024.

Average UK house prices increased by 3.4% (provisional estimate), to £292,000, in the 12 months to October 2024. This annual growth was up from 2.8% in the 12 months to September 2024. Annual inflation has been generally increasing since its low point of negative 2.7% in the 12 months to December 2023.

HM Land Registry publishes the full UK House Price Index report and monthly data.

Our new local housing statistics tool summarises the latest private rents and house price statistics for local areas.

UK monthly rents estimates for the latest two months, and UK House Price Index (HPI) estimates for the latest 12 months, are provisional and subject to revision. All statistics are non-seasonally adjusted estimates, unless stated otherwise.

Our Measuring the UK housing market blog post explains why changes in new-let annual inflation take time to be reflected in the Price Index of Private Rent (PIPR), which measures the price change of the entire privately-rented stock.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) reported that tenant demand was relatively flat in November (partly because of seasonality), while landlord instructions continued to fall, as described in the UK Residential Market Survey, November 2024 report (PDF, 4.8MB).

The average house price for England was £309,000 in October 2024, up 3.0% (£9,000) from a year earlier. This annual rise was higher than in the 12 months to September 2024 (2.4%).

The average house price for Wales was £222,000 in October 2024, up 4.0% (£8,000) from a year earlier. This annual rise was higher than in the 12 months to September 2024 (0.9%).

The average house price for Scotland was £197,000 in October 2024, up 5.5% (£10,000) from a year earlier. This annual rise was higher than in the 12 months to September 2024 (5.1%).

The average house price for Northern Ireland was £191,000 in Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2024, up 6.2% (£12,000) from Quarter 3 a year earlier.

The North East was the English region with the highest house price inflation in the 12 months to October 2024, at 4.7%. This was down from 6.0% in the 12 months to September 2024.

Annual house price inflation was lowest in London, at 0.2% in the 12 months to October 2024. This was up from a decrease of 0.3% in the 12 months to September 2024.

In November 2024, the average private rent in Great Britain was £1,319 per month. This is £110 (9.1%) higher than 12 months previously.

England

Average rent for England was £1,362 in November 2024, up 9.3% (£116) from a year earlier. This annual rise was higher than in the 12 months to October 2024 (8.8%), and reflects a new record-high annual growth for England.

Wales

Average rent for Wales was £772 in November 2024, up 8.0% (£57) from a year earlier. This annual rise was higher than in the 12 months to October 2024 (7.9%). Wales's annual inflation rate has been generally slowing since the record-high annual rise of 9.8% in November 2023.

Scotland

Average rent for Scotland was £980 in November 2024, up 6.5% (£59) from a year earlier. This annual rise was lower than in the 12 months to October 2024 (6.6%). Scotland's annual inflation rate has been generally slowing since the record-high annual rise of 11.8% in August 2023.

Because of data collection limitations, Scotland rents data, which are used in the Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR) stock measure, are mainly for advertised new lets. These advertised new lets were not subject to Scotland's in-tenancy price-increase cap and are not subject to temporary changes to the Rent Adjudication system, as described in the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) Scotland Bill and the Scottish Government's Cost of living: rent and eviction page, respectively. We advise users to bear this in mind when interpreting estimates for Scotland and comparing with other UK countries (see Section 10: Data sources and quality).

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland data are currently available up to September 2024. Average rent in Northern Ireland increased by 9.0% in the 12 months to September 2024. This was unchanged from the 12 months to August 2024, and below the record-high annual rise of 10.4% in February 2024.

London was the English region with the highest rents inflation in the 12 months to November 2024, at 11.6%. This annual rise was higher than in the 12 months to October 2024 (10.4%), and reflects a new record-high annual growth for London. The rise in London's annual inflation was caused by two consecutive months of large rent rises, compared with smaller rises a year ago.

Rents annual inflation was lowest in Yorkshire and The Humber, at 5.7% in November 2024. This annual rise was lower than in the 12 months to October 2024 (5.9%).

In November 2024, the average rent was highest in London (£2,206) and lowest in the North East (£700).

Figure 6: Privately renting a property is most expensive in London

Average private rent, English regions, January 2015 to November 2024

Average monthly private rents vary across local authorities in England and Wales, and broad rental market areas in Scotland.

In November 2024, the average rent was highest in Kensington and Chelsea, London (£3,520) and lowest in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland (£485). Excluding London, the local area with the highest average rent in November 2024 was Elmbridge, South East (£1,856).

Figure 7: Average rent was more than seven times higher in the most expensive local area than in the least expensive

Average private rent and annual inflation, local authorities in England and Wales and Broad Rental Market Areas in Scotland, January 2015 to November 2024

Notes

1. Values of [x] in this tool represent data which are not available.

The average private rent was highest for detached properties (£1,515) and lowest for flats and maisonettes (£1,288) for Great Britain in November 2024. Average private rent was highest for properties with four or more bedrooms (£2,003) and lowest for properties with one bedroom (£1,060).

Figure 8: Private rent increases with property size

Average private rent, local authorities in England and Wales and broad rental market areas in Scotland, November 2024

Administrative data

Data that are already collected for other purposes through day-to-day activities. Examples include health records or social security payments.

Annual percentage change

The rate at which prices rise and fall over a 12-month period. Interchangeable with "annual inflation" (or "annual growth", if positive).

Price inflation

Inflation is the rate at which prices rise and fall over time.

Non-seasonally adjusted

A non-seasonally adjusted series is one that includes seasonal effects.

The Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR) is released as official statistics in development and is subject to revisions if methodology improvements are identified. Read more in our Guide to official statistics in development.

UK House Price Index

HM Land Registry publishes the full UK House Price Index (HPI) report and monthly data. Additionally, the Registers of Scotland publishes UK HPI reports and Land and Property Services Northern Ireland publishes Northern Ireland HPI reports.

UK HPI's revisions policy is explained in Section 4 of HMLR's About the UK House Price Index guidance.

Total transaction volumes and new build volumes available to calculate UK HPI estimates have increased recently. HMLR have processed over 40% of HMRC's provisional sales estimate for UK HPI's first estimate in recent months, though transaction volumes for older periods and new build volumes remain lower than historical averages. Users should be aware that revisions may be larger than historically and should note the greater uncertainty around new build prices. Further information is available in HMLR's UK House Price Index summary.

UK HPI re-referencing

UK HPI price levels use the January 2015 average price of a reference set of properties and apply the inflation rate to produce the full time series. The types of property being sold can change over time, so in our 19 February 2025 release, the UK HPI will be re-referenced to January 2023 as the new reference period. This re-referencing will ensure UK HPI price levels better reflect the type of properties currently being sold. The UK HPI indices will report January 2023 equals 100. The price level series will shift up or down because of re-referencing, but inflation rates will be unchanged, as explained in Section 3 of HMLR's Quality and methodology guidance.

Price Index of Private Rents

PIPR's statistics are monthly from January 2015 onwards, and use January 2023 as the base period for indexing.

Our Price Index of Private Rents, UK: historical series dataset links pre-2015 IPHRP trends with PIPR trends from 2015 onwards, down to a regional level. We advise caution when comparing pre-2015 trends with later estimates because of the methodology change in January 2015.

Extending the PIPR time series back further from January 2015 to address quality in earlier periods for Great Britain, and the unavailability of rents data for Northern Ireland (and therefore the UK) was not feasible because of lower data volumes.

Spotlight on quality assessment of the Price Index of Private Rents

We recently requested a quality-focused assessment of the PIPR by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). This request was the first step towards achieving accredited official statistics status, with further development planned to incorporate Northern Ireland into PIPR. The OSR published their Spotlight on Quality Assessment: Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR) report on 10 October 2024. We welcome the report findings and will announce how we intend to address OSR's requirements soon.

Sources for Price Index of Private Rents

The PIPR and IPHRP use the same rents data. The PIPR also uses property attributes data. More detail is in our Quality assurance of administrative data used in the PIPR methodology.

Data collection for Price Index of Private Rents

In England and Wales, achieved rents data are collected for both new and existing tenancies. Data collection volumes for Brent have been high in recent months, leading to a sharp increase in the estimated average rent for Brent.

In Northern Ireland, rents data are for newly-advertised lets.

Scotland rents data are predominantly for advertised new lets, with only a small proportion based on existing lets data. Therefore, price changes for existing tenancies are largely estimated for Scotland.

The Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) Scotland Bill capped in-tenancy rent price increases at 0% (and up to 3% in certain circumstances) from September 2022 until 31 March 2023. The Scottish Government website reports that between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024, this rent price-increase cap was 3% (and up to 6% in certain circumstances). From 1 April 2024, temporary changes to the rent adjudication system restricts rent increases for existing tenants who apply for rent adjudication, as shown in the Scottish Government's Cost of living: rent and eviction guidance.

These caps and restrictions will not be reflected in the price of new lets used to estimate the price of existing tenancies. Scottish Government statisticians believe that the lack of data on existing tenants benefitting from rent controls, and changes to the Rent Adjudication system, will lead to overestimation in stock prices and indices for Scotland since late 2022.

Revision Policy for Price Index of Private Rents

Northern Ireland rents data are not available for the latest two months. To produce provisional UK statistics, Great Britain's inflation rate for the latest two months has been used to estimate Northern Ireland's inflation rate in this period.

Each subsequent month, updated Northern Ireland data are used to revise estimates for the UK, providing a two-month revision period for the UK series in PIPR.

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

The PIPR reflects price changes for all privately rented properties, including existing tenancies and newly advertised lets.

PIPR produces prices that are comparable over time and publishes to an increased level of geographic granularity.

Limitations

While mitigation efforts are made, price changes at local levels can be influenced by the type and number of properties collected in any given period, which may lead to volatility. Longer-term trends should be considered for lower-level geographic breakdowns, rather than monthly movements.

Estimates for the City of London and Isles of Scilly are not published because of low collection volumes.

Because of differences in data collection and housing policy, caution is advised when comparing Scotland's estimates with other areas in England and Wales, and within Scotland. More information is available in our PIPR Quality and Methodology Information (QMI).

Future developments

We aim to implement the PIPR methodology for Northern Ireland in March 2025. Until then, we will continue to use IPHRP methodology for Northern Ireland's private rental price statistics, and Verian data for Northern Ireland's consumer price statistics.

Contact us at hpi@ons.gov.uk.