Private rent and house prices, UK: May 2024

• Average UK private rents increased by 8.9% in the 12 months to April 2024 (provisional estimate), down from 9.2% in the 12 months to March 2024. 

• Average rents increased to £1,293 (8.9%) in England, £730 (8.2%) in Wales and £952 (10.0%) in Scotland, in the 12 months to April 2024. 

• In Northern Ireland, average rents increased by 10.4%, in the 12 months to February 2024. 

• In England, rents inflation was highest in London (10.8%) and lowest in the North East (5.8%), in the 12 months to April 2024. 

• In Great Britain, average rent was highest in Kensington and Chelsea (£3,356) and lowest in Dumfries and Galloway (£477). 

• Average UK house prices increased by 1.8% in the 12 months to March 2024 (provisional estimate), up from a decrease of 0.2% (revised estimate) in the 12 months to February 2024.

In recent periods, the total transaction volumes and new build volumes available to calculate UK House Price Index estimates have been lower than usual.

We are developing our Northern Ireland private rent statistics, aiming to use PIPR methodology for Northern Ireland from March 2025, which will enable average rent prices for Northern Ireland and the UK to be produced. 

Average UK private rents increased by 8.9% in the 12 months to April 2024 (provisional estimate). This was down from the record high of 9.2% in the 12 months to March 2024 (revised estimate) and was the first slowing of the annual inflation rate since December 2023. 

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

Average UK house prices increased 1.8% (provisional estimate), to £283,000, in the 12 months to March 2024. This was up from a decrease of 0.2% in the 12 months to February 2024 (revised estimate) and was the first annual increase in prices since the 12 months to June 2023. 

In the 12 months to March 2024 (provisional estimate), average house prices increased in England to £299,000 (1.0%), increased in Wales to £214,000 (1.3%) and increased in Scotland to £192,000 (6.7%). Average house prices increased by 4.0% to £178,000 in the year to Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2024 in Northern Ireland. 

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.

Since the Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR) measures rent price changes of the entire privately rented stock, changes in new-let annual inflation from supply-and-demand pressures take time to be reflected in PIPR. For more information, see our Measuring the UK housing market blog post. 

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) reported, in their April 2024 UK Residential Market Survey, that tenant demand growth continued to lose momentum, while landlord instructions remained in short supply.

In April 2024, the average private rent in Great Britain was £1,254 per month. This was £103 (8.9%) higher than 12 months ago.

England 

Average rent for England was £1,293 in April 2024, up 8.9% (£106) from a year earlier. This annual rise was lower than in the 12 months to March 2024 (9.1%), which was the highest annual rise since this series began in 2006. 

Wales 

Average rent for Wales was £730 in April 2024, up 8.2% (£55) from a year earlier. This annual rise was lower than in the 12 months to March 2024 (9.0%). Wales's annual inflation rate has been generally slowing since the record-high annual rise of 9.8% in November 2023, which was the highest annual rise since this series began in 2010. 

Scotland 

Average rent for Scotland was £952 in April 2024, up 10.0% (£87) from a year earlier. This annual rise was lower than in the 12 months to March 2024 (10.5%). Scotland's annual inflation rate has been generally slowing since the record-high annual rise of 11.8% in August 2023, which was the highest annual rise since this series began in 2012. 

Rising annual inflation between late-2021 and mid-2023, followed by a slight easing in annual inflation, is likely to reflect recent changes in annual inflation for new lets that were not subject to Scotland's previous in-tenancy price-increase cap. 

Because of data collection limitations, Scotland rents data (underlying the Price Index of Private Rents's (PIPR's) stock measure) are mainly for advertised new lets, which were not subject to the Scottish Parliament's in-tenancy price-increase cap and are not subject to temporary changes to the Scottish Government's rent adjudication system. We advise users to bear this in mind when interpreting estimates for Scotland and comparing with other UK countries (see Section 9: Measuring the data). 

Northern Ireland 

Northern Ireland data are currently available up to February 2024. Average rent in Northern Ireland increased by 10.4% in the 12 months to February 2024, up from 10.1% in January 2024. This is the highest annual rise since this series began in 2016.

London was the English region with the highest rents inflation in the 12 months to April 2024, at 10.8%. This was down from the record-high annual rise of 11.2% in March 2024, which was the highest annual inflation since this series began in January 2006. London’s annual inflation rate slowed because average rent prices rose more slowly in April 2024 than they did a year earlier.

Rents annual inflation was lowest in the North East, at 5.8% in April 2024. This was down from the joint record-high annual rise of 6.1% in March 2024.

In April 2024, the average rent was highest in London (£2,070) and lowest in the North East (£666).

Figure 5: Privately renting a property is most expensive in London

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

Download the data

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

In April 2024, the average rent was highest in Kensington and Chelsea, London (£3,356), and lowest in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland (£477). Excluding London, the local area with the highest average rent in April 2024 was Elmbridge, South East (£1,765).

Figure 6: 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 April 2024

Notes

1. Values of [x] in this table represent data which are not available. For instance, there is no annual change in 2015 because there are no data in 2014 to compare with.

For Great Britain in April 2024, the average private rent was highest for detached properties (£1,453) and lowest for flats and maisonettes (£1,219). Average private rent was highest for properties with four or more bedrooms (£1,920) and lowest for properties with one bedroom (£1,002).

Figure 7: Private rent increases with property size

Average private rent, local authorities in England and Wales and broad rental market areas in Scotland, April 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).  

Private rent and house price inflation 

Inflation is the rate at which prices (for renting or purchasing property) rise and fall over time.  

Non-seasonally adjusted 

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

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

On 20 March 2024, our new, monthly Private Rent and House Prices, UK bulletin replaced our UK House Price Index (UK HPI) bulletin, our Index of Private Housing Rental Prices (IPHRP) bulletin and our Private Rental Market Summary statistics in England (PRMS) bulletin. This new release uses the Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR) to provide more insight into the UK private rental sector and includes headline UK HPI statistics. 

UK House Price Index 

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

In March and April 2024, UK HPI estimates were revised from January 2021 onwards by making use of price data processed outside the usual revision period. From May 2024's release, UK HPI returned to the usual 12-month revision period, as explained in the HM Land Registry's About the UK House Price Index guidance.  

In recent periods, the total transaction volumes and new build volumes available to calculate UK HPI estimates for recent months have been lower than historically. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) and HM Land Registry (HMLR) are working to resolve this. Users should be aware that revisions may be larger than usual and should note that there is substantially greater uncertainty around new build prices. Further information is available on HMLR's UK House Price Index summary web page. 

Provisional UK HPI estimates for March 2024 are based on approximately 16,200 records for England, 5,600 for Scotland, and 900 for Wales. This represents 27% of HMRC's provisional sales estimate for March 2024. Over time, more records will become available for recent periods, which will be used to revise UK HPI estimates and sales volumes in line with our revision policy.  

Sales estimates from UK HPI differ from estimates from HMRC because of different data sources (price paid data versus land and transaction tax), revision period size (UK HPI has a longer revision period than HMRC estimates) and coverage. HMRC's Quality report states there are likely to be inaccuracies in their data because of reporting or keying errors, such as misclassification between residential and non-residential transactions. However, HMRC take steps to reduce this measurement error. Another reason for differences could be that residential property transactions where the buyer or seller is a corporate body, company or business, are excluded from UK HPI data, but included in HMRC data.  

Further information on data sources, revision policy, methods and quality is available in HMLR's UK HPI guidance. 

Separately, we publish House price data: quarterly tables and House price data: annual tables, which include simple average house and mortgage price statistics, based on a sub-sample of Regulated Mortgage Survey data. 

Price Index of Private Rents 

PIPR's statistics are available from January 2015 onwards on a monthly basis and uses January 2023 as the base year for indexing. 

By chain-linking the IPHRP (pre-2015) and PIPR (2015 onward) indices together, we have published a full Price Index of Private Rents, UK: historical series for the UK, Great Britain, its countries and English regions. Series begin in January 2005 for England, January 2009 for Wales, January 2011 for Scotland, and January 2015 for Northern Ireland and the UK. We advise caution when comparing pre-2015 trends with later estimates because of the methodology change in January 2015. 

Sources for Price Index of Private Rents 

The PIPR and the IPHRP use the same administrative rent price data. The PIPR also uses administrative property attributes data. More detail is available in our Quality assurance of administrative data used in the PIPR methodolody. 

Data collection for Price Index of Private Rents 

Annually, over 450,000 private rent prices are collected in England and around 30,000 in Wales, 40,000 in Scotland, and 15,000 in Northern Ireland. 

In England and Wales, achieved rents data are collected for both new and existing tenancies. Rent Officers receive a notification 12 months after a property's last update, supporting their aims to revisit properties. 

Data collection volumes for Brent have been high in recent months. This means that a large proportion of data for Brent are from recent months. Since UK rents have been rising at a record-high pace for more than a year, this has led to a sharp increase in the estimated rent price for Brent recently. 

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 Act 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, as shown in the Scottish Government's guidance, temporary changes to the rent adjudication system restricts rent increases for existing tenants who apply for rent adjudication. 

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 over-estimation 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. This means that there is a two-month revision period for the UK series in PIPR.

Strengths 

The Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR) reflects price changes for all privately rented properties (including for existing tenancies), not only changes for newly advertised lets. 

PIPR replaced the Index of Private Housing Rental Prices (IPHRP) and private rental market summary statistics (PRMS) in March 2024. PIPR produces rent prices that are comparable over time (unlike PRMS) and publishes at increased geographic granularity than IPHRP. 

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).

In our Redevelopment of private rental prices statistics article, we announced that we aim to implement the Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR) methodology for Northern Ireland in March 2025. Until then, we will continue to use Index of Private Housing Rental Prices (IPHRP) methodology for Northern Ireland's private rental price statistics, and Verian (previously Kantar) data for Northern Ireland's consumer price statistics.

PIPR data are currently available from January 2015 to present. We are investigating the feasibility of extending the time series back further. 

For queries or feedback, email hpi@ons.gov.uk.