Rents Hit Record Highs in July 2026

Average advertised rents across Britain have just hit new record highs. Outside London, the typical asking rent climbed to £1,397 a month in the second quarter of the year. That is up 1.9% on the previous quarter and 2.3% higher than this time last year.

Here in London, rents rose 2% over the same period to a record £2,791 a month. That marks the capital's biggest quarterly jump since 2023.

Headline numbers like these travel fast – but they don’t tell us the ‘why’. What matters is context – and, not least, understanding what is happening locally, not nationally.

That’s what we’re here to do.

The National Picture

According to the latest Rightmove rental report, the number of homes available to rent across Britain is now 1% lower than it was a year ago.

Not a huge amount, you may think – but nevertheless, that is the first annual fall since 2022. It isn't because homes are letting out quicker than normal. It's because fewer new properties are coming onto the market in the first place.

Demand, meanwhile, has cooled from its post-pandemic extreme. The average rental property now attracts 10 enquiries, down from 11 a year ago and a long way from the 22 recorded at the height of the 2022 frenzy.

But even if that is still comfortably above the pre-pandemic norm of 5, it is nevertheless clear that something is going on.

So what is making the difference?

Zooming into South West London

Let’s start by looking at how the data paints a picture in our local market.

Over the past 12 months, there have been almost 14,500 new property lets across this area of South West London we serve, spanning from Putney and Wimbledon through to Croydon and Sydenham.

The average rent across this area is actually £2,074 per month – so, a fair distance below that overall London average we mentioned of £2,791 per month. This may in some way explain why the market is as busy and as buoyant as it is here; it is more affordable, relatively speaking, compared with other parts of London at least.

The lower average rental value is perhaps due to our local property make-up, when it comes to rented homes: of those 14,500 or so transactions, approaching 3,000 have been houses, but over 11,500 have been flats – in other words, almost 80% of rentals.

But there’s more, when it comes to our local rental story. Average rents across the UK went up 1.9% in the past three months, and in London by 2%. Here in this South-westerly patch of our capital city, though, rents have actually stayed almost exactly the same – rising from £2,049 per month on average, to £2,074 per month.

That said, they have risen by 9% over the past year, according to figures from Dataloft, a respected property data and insights provider.

This is exactly why we continue writing articles like this. That difference between the national headlines and what's happening in our own area is important if you are a landlord in South London, because without local context it's easy to draw the wrong conclusions.

A national headline, or even a general report from a portal like Rightmove which might find its way to your inbox, will often tell you what the market in Britain is doing as a whole, and sometimes those trends and that data align with local statistics. But they tend not to tell you what's really happening in Clapham, Tooting, Streatham or Balham.

That's why we will continue bringing you this sort of insight – to help you, as local landlords and tenants, make informed decisions.

Why are there so few rentals in South London?

Rental options are down – and at the same time, more properties than normal are currently for sale. Is this just a coincidence?

The Renters' Rights Act 2026 was implemented on May 1 – Phase One, at least – which ended Section 21 – the so-called "no fault" eviction route many landlords have relied on for over three decades. Every assured shorthold tenancy has now converted to a periodic tenancy, and landlords wanting possession need to rely on specific, evidence-based grounds rather than simply giving notice. There are no more fixed-term tenancies, which gave landlords a degree of certainty. Tenants can request pets in properties. Further changes are pending such as the introduction of the Decent Homes Standard, the Landlord Database, a new Ombudsman for landlords and the rolling out of Awaab’s Law to cover Private Rented Sector properties.

If you are a tenant reading this, you probably think: well, of course – how could anyone disapprove of those things?

And you are right. These things are all sensible things from a tenant's point of view, designed to offer more protection and fairer rules, essentially, to allow them to live safely and make a house or flat their home for longer.

Most letting agents and most landlords don’t want less than that reality for tenants, either, however; the trouble is, legislating for it causes problems. Most landlords are good and fair people who look after their properties and the tenants in them, and most tenants are good people who pay rent on time and treat their properties well – but not all, in either case. This new legislation curbs the malpractices of the minority of bad landlords… but it makes it much harder for landlords and agents to do much about the misbehaviour of the proportionately few bad tenants – and that is a lot of risk for private landlords who are often normal people, perhaps investing in one or two properties for a pension, who are probably covering a mortgage and can’t handle long periods with no rent paid or high refurbishment costs if they are unfortunate enough to encounter a bad tenant – and therein lies the problem for some (even if it is a perceived one).

At the same time, the cost of borrowing has risen, tax that landlords pay has increased and overall costs of maintaining properties have also risen.

Put these things together and you get a plausible explanation for what might be driving the supply squeeze: some are choosing not to list them at all, while they weigh up higher costs against a regulatory landscape that looks very different to the one they started out in.

What it means if you're a landlord in South West London

If you do decide it’s time to sell your rental property, be sure that you mean it. If you give notice to tenants to sell your property, that is legal; if the sale does not work however, for whatever reason, you will not be able to relet that property for 12 months. It is part of the legislation, designed to prevent landlords and agents using this as a mechanism to essentially get Section 21 through the back door.

But not all landlords are as fearful, and there is plenty of emerging evidence that if there were a move to sell rental properties, that has already largely happened, and those that remained in it for the long haul have become largely used to the changes and more accepting of them.

The landlords doing well in this market tend to understand exactly what the new possession grounds mean for them in practice, and have an attitude that tenants deserve to live in quality, well maintained homes with rents priced fairly.

What it means if you're a tenant

‘Record rents’ is the headline, but the full picture is more nuanced than that.

Competition for property has eased since 2022. You're no longer usually up against 22 other applicants for the same flat. That said, fewer homes coming to market does mean less choice, and in the tightest pockets of South West London, that scarcity is still keeping upward pressure on price even as the frantic bidding-war atmosphere of a few years ago has faded.

Local knowledge matters more than ever

National data is useful to provide an overview, but it is only local data that can provide you with the full context. National reports and headlines are not much use for decision-making. In a market being reshaped simultaneously by new legislation, borrowing costs and street-by-street differences when it comes to supply of good rental properties for local families and workers, the agents who know their patch well are the ones who can actually tell you what's likely to happen next – and that is why here at Your Home Managed we pay so much attention to what is going on locally on an almost granular level.

If you're a landlord weighing up your options under the new rules, or a tenant trying to work out whether now's the time to move, Your Home Managed can talk you through what's actually happening in Colliers Wood compared to Camberwell, or in Balham compared to Brixton.

And if you are still uncertain about the recent legislative changes, read our free landlord guide – it is a useful document that outlines all the key points you need to know.

You can find it here: https://www.yourhomemanaged.com/renters-rights-act-2025-guide