Private rent and house prices, UK: April 2025

• Average UK monthly private rents increased by 7.7%, to £1,332, in the 12 months to March 2025 (provisional estimate); this annual growth rate is down from 8.1% in the 12 months to February 2025.

• Average rents increased to £1,386 (7.8%) in England, £792 (8.9%) in Wales, and £1,001 (5.7%) in Scotland, in the 12 months to March 2025.

• In Northern Ireland, average rents increased to £838 (8.2%) in the 12 months to January 2025.

• In England, private rents annual inflation was highest in the North East (9.4%) and lowest in Yorkshire and The Humber (4.6%), in the 12 months to March 2025.

• Average UK house prices increased by 5.4%, to £268,000, in the 12 months to February 2025 (provisional estimate); this annual growth rate is up from 4.8% in the 12 months to January 2025.

• Average house prices increased to £292,000 (5.3%) in England, £207,000 (4.1%) in Wales, and £186,000 (5.7%) in Scotland, in the 12 months to February 2025.

From the March 2025 release onwards, the Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR) covers the UK, which enables us to produce average rent levels for Northern Ireland and the UK. Read more in Section 10: Data sources and quality.

Average UK monthly private rents increased by 7.7% in the 12 months to March 2025 (provisional estimate). This was down from 8.1% in the 12 months to February 2025 and was below the record-high annual rise of 9.1% in March 2024.

Average UK house prices increased by 5.4% (provisional estimate), to £268,000, in the 12 months to February 2025. This annual growth was up from 4.8% in the 12 months to January 2025. Annual inflation has been generally increasing since its recent 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.

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

UK monthly rents estimates for the latest two months, and UK HPI estimates for the latest 12 months, are provisional and subject to revision (see Section 10: Data sources and quality). All statistics are non-seasonally adjusted estimates, unless stated otherwise.

Our How we measure rental price inflation blog post explains the differences between measures of new-let annual inflation and the Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR), which measures the price change of the entire privately rented stock.

The average house price for England was £292,000 in February 2025, up 5.3% (£15,000) from a year earlier. This annual rise was higher than in the 12 months to January 2025 (4.5%).

The average house price for Wales was £207,000 in February 2025, up 4.1% (£8,000) from a year earlier. This annual rise was lower than in the 12 months to January 2025 (5.6%).

The average house price for Scotland was £186,000 in February 2025, up 5.7% (£10,000) from a year earlier. This annual rise was higher than in the 12 months to January 2025 (5.3%).

The average house price for Northern Ireland was £183,000 in Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2024, up 9.0% (£15,000) from Quarter 4 a year earlier.

The North West was the English region with the highest house price inflation in the 12 months to February 2025, at 8.0%. This was up from 6.9% in the 12 months to January 2025.

Annual house price inflation was lowest in London, at 1.7% in the 12 months to February 2025. This was down from 2.0% in the 12 months to January 2025.

The average private rent in the UK was £1,332 per month in March 2025. This is £96 (7.7%) higher than 12 months previously.

England

Average rent for England was £1,386 in March 2025, up 7.8% (£101) from a year earlier. This annual rise was lower than in the 12 months to February 2025 (8.3%) and below the record-high annual growth in the 12 months to November 2024 (9.2%).

Wales

Average rent for Wales was £792 in March 2025, up 8.9% (£64) from a year earlier. This annual rise was higher than in the 12 months to February 2025 (8.5%), but below the record-high annual rise of 9.9% in November 2023.

Scotland

Average rent for Scotland was £1,001 in March 2025, up 5.7% (£54) from a year earlier. This annual rise was lower than in the 12 months to February 2025 (5.8%). Scotland's annual inflation rate has been generally slowing since the record-high annual rise of 11.7% 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. From September 2022 to March 2025, measures relating to in-tenancy rent increases were implemented in Scotland (see Section 10: Data sources and quality). We advise users to bear this in mind when interpreting estimates for Scotland and comparing with other UK countries.

Northern Ireland

We incorporated Northern Ireland into the Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR) in March 2025, enabling us to produce average rent levels for Northern Ireland and the UK.

Average rent in Northern Ireland was £838 in January 2025, up 8.2% (£63) from a year earlier. This annual rise was higher than in the 12 months to December 2024 (8.1%). Northern Ireland's annual inflation rate has been generally slowing since the record-high annual rise of 9.9% in April 2024.

Northern Ireland's rents data are for advertised new lets. We advise users to bear this in mind when comparing across the UK (see Section 10: Data sources and quality).

For the first time since April 2023, the English region with the highest annual rent inflation rate was not London. The North East had the highest inflation, at 9.4% in the 12 months to March 2025. This annual rise was higher than in the 12 months to February 2025 (8.7%) and is a new record-high annual growth rate for the North East. Annual inflation rates rose in 5 of the 12 local authorities within the North East region.

Rent annual inflation remained lowest in Yorkshire and The Humber, at 4.6% in the 12 months to March 2025. This annual rise was lower than in the 12 months to February 2025 (4.8%) and marks the ninth consecutive month of slowing annual inflation.

London’s annual inflation rate eased to 9.1% in the 12 months to March 2025, down from 9.9% in the 12 months to February 2025, because London rents rose more slowly between February 2025 and March 2025 than in the same period a year earlier.

Average rent was highest in London (£2,243) and lowest in the North East (£725) in March 2025.

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

Average private rent, English regions, January 2015 to March 2025

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Average monthly private rents vary across local authorities in England and Wales, and Broad Rental Market Areas in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Average rent was highest in Kensington and Chelsea, London (£3,639) and lowest in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland (£528), in March 2025. Excluding London, the local area with the highest average rent in March 2025 was Elmbridge, South East (£1,893).

Figure 7: Average rent was more than six 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 and Northern Ireland, January 2015 to March 2025

Notes:

1. Values of [x] in this tool represent data which are not available.
2. Northern Ireland rents data are currently available up to January 2025.

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The average UK monthly private rent in March 2025 was highest for detached properties (£1,522) and lowest for flats and maisonettes (£1,306). Average UK private rent was highest for properties with four or more bedrooms (£1,996) and lowest for properties with one bedroom (£1,079).

Figure 8: Private rent increases with property size

Average private rent, local authorities in England and Wales (March 2025) and broad rental market areas in Scotland (March 2025) and Northern Ireland (January 2025)

Notes:

1. Northern Ireland rents data are currently available up to January 2025.

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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).

Non-seasonally adjusted

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

Price inflation

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

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 (HMLR) 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 revision policy is 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 HM Revenue and Customs' (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 they have been historically and should note the greater uncertainty around new build prices. Further information is available in HMLR's UK House Price Index summary.

Potential methodology improvements are being investigated, aimed at reducing revisions in UK HPI estimates. Read more in our UK HPI monthly imputation methods paper (PDF, 445KB).

UK HPI re-referencing

In February 2025's release, UK HPI's reference period was updated to January 2023, so UK HPI indices now report January 2023 equals 100. Re-referencing ensures the UK HPI reflects the price of the "average" property currently being sold and shifts the entire price level series for each geography and breakdown by a constant percentage. Read more in our previous bulletin and Keeping average house prices up to date blog.

Price Index of Private Rents

PIPR's reference period for indexing is January 2023 and statistics are available from January 2015. In March 2025, PIPR coverage was expanded to the whole UK and small improvements were made to the Great Britain historical series by incorporating additional data.

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

Our rents development plan summarises our responses and actions taken relating to user requests, and outlines planned further developments relating to PIPR.

Sources for Price Index of Private Rents

The PIPR uses rents price data and property attributes data. More detail is in our Quality assurance of administrative data used in the PIPR methodolody.

Data collection for Price Index of Private Rents

In England and Wales, achieved rents data are collected for both new and existing tenancies. Average rent for Brent increased sharply in 2024 because of rapid rent rises from mid-2023 to mid-2024, and a sharp increase in data collection volumes for Brent in early 2024. Rent price for Brent stabilised around £2,110 in late 2024, leading to eight consecutive months of slowing annual inflation for Brent.

Welsh rent officers have observed rapidly rising rent in Newport in recent months, which aligns with PIPR's reports of large monthly price rises in winter 2024 to 2025. This, combined with monthly price falls in late 2023 and a reduction in Newport's data collection volumes in winter 2024, formed the main contribution to the sharp increase in Newport's annual inflation rate in winter 2024.

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.

From September 2022 to March 2025, measures relating to in-tenancy rent increases were implemented in Scotland. More detail is in our PIPR dataset and previous release. Within this period, these measures did not apply to 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, to which these measures previously applied, will have led to overestimation in stock prices and indices for Scotland during this period.

Revision Policy for Price Index of Private Rents

Northern Ireland rents data are not available for the latest two months. For a given Northern Ireland series (including breakdowns), the latest two months' index values have been estimated by applying the monthly average of the latest-available two-month inflation rate for that series to the latest-available index value for that series.

These imputed index values for the latest two months for Northern Ireland were aggregated with the corresponding data for Great Britain using PIPR weights to produce provisional UK estimates for the latest two months, for each UK series (including UK-level breakdowns).

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 estimates for Scotland and Northern Ireland with other areas in England and Wales, and within Scotland. More information is available in our PIPR Quality and Methodology Information (QMI).

Future developments

Following our request for a quality-focused assessment of the PIPR, the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) published their Spotlight on Quality Assessment: Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR) report in October 2024. Our Private rental prices development plan: updated April 2025 article outlines our progress towards meeting these requirements and plans for further action.

Contact us at hpi@ons.gov.uk.