Rental Market Statistics For England: April 2019 To March 2020

Private Rental Market Summary Statistics for England: April 2019 to March 2020

Data from the Valuation Office Agency, which values properties for taxation and other purposes, shows that the median monthly rent in England between April 2019 and March 2020 was £700. Properties with four or more bedrooms had the highest median monthly rent (£1300) while single rooms had the lowest (£400). Rents for other property types fell somewhere in between these two values. For instance, the median monthly rent for one-bedroom houses was nearly £600, while that for three-bedroom houses was just under £800.

The data also showed that there was a wide variation in rents charged for similar property types. For instance, rent for single rooms ranged between £351 and £460; for studios, the rent was between £433 and £700. The variance was particularly wide for properties with four or more bedrooms, which had an interquartile range of between £950 and £1850 – a £900 difference. The interquartile range for the entire country lay between £500 and £950.

The median monthly rent varied by region. For instance, in London, the median monthly rent was £1425, which was £525 more than the South East, the region with the second-highest median monthly rent in England. Occupying the opposite end of the spectrum were Yorkshire and the Humber, which had a median rent of nearly £600, and the North East, which had the lowest monthly median rent in the country (£495). The median monthly rent for other regions fell somewhere in between. For instance, the median monthly rent for the North West was £575; for East Midlands, £600; and for West Midlands, £645. 

The data also revealed that there were considerable variations even within regions. For instance, the median monthly rent for Inner London was £1700, while that for Outer London was £1295 – a whooping £405 difference. In the North East, median monthly rents ranged between £425 and £595. In Yorkshire and the Humber, monthly rents were between £450 and £695. While there were such variations in all regions of the country, London had significantly more, indicating that the city offered a greater depth and breadth of properties. 

The median monthly rent data for local authorities showed that there were significant variations at this level as well. Westminster, in Inner London, had the highest median monthly rent in the country – £2,492. Kingston upon Hull, in Yorkshire and the Humber, had the lowest (£420). The differences in median monthly rents were sometimes very wide even among local authorities located in the same region. For instance, Westminster and Lewisham are both located in Inner London; however, the median monthly rent in Lewisham was £1,192 lower. 

The median monthly rent for virtually all properties located in local authorities in London was generally higher than anywhere else in the country. For instance, the median monthly rent for properties with four or more bedrooms in Westminster was £7393, while in Kensington and Chelsea, the rent was £6428. In contrast, the median rent for the same type of properties in Kingston upon Hull was a more modest £575 – far less than the median monthly rent for a one-bedroom house in Westminster, which was £2057, and in Camden, which was £1733.

Notes About the VOA Data on Which This Summary Is Based

This summary was generated from a sample of 502,780 private rental transactions in the VOA lettings information database. The information in this database is collected by Rent Officers from property owners and letting agents. Statistical computations were based on the total monthly rents, which in certain cases includes service charges for utilities such as fuel. The sample only included cases where evidence of a transaction taking place was incontrovertible to ensure accuracy. Despite that, the accuracy of the median monthly rent information at the local authority level may be compromised due to the small size of the samples. 

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