Map shows where soaring rents are causing housing crisis
The cost of renting in the UK has risen by 8.4% over the last 12 months - find out how much prices have gone up in your area by using our interactive map.
People renting homes in England paid an average of £1,327 a month in the year to August, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics. In Scotland the average home costs £969 a month to rent, and in Wales £752 a month. No figures are available for Northern Ireland.
It means rents have gone up by an average of 8.5% over the course of the year in both England and Wales, and by 7.6% in Scotland.
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Rent hikes have been particularly high in London, having risen 9.6% over the course of the last year. Rents are also up by 9.2% In the North West, the East Midlands and the West Midlands. In the South east they’re up 7.7% year-on-year, in the East of England by 7.6%, in Yorkshire and the Humber by 7.0%, and in the North East by 6.7%.
You can see how much rents have gone up in your local area by using our interactive map.
In Somerset, rent has been hiked by around 6.9%, while in Bath it has risen by 8.4%. But North Somerset has been the largest increases, rising by 9.6%
The London borough of Brent has experienced the largest rent price increases in the whole of the UK. Prices there are now 33.6% higher than they were 12 months ago. The average rental price in Brent is now £2,121 a month. Melton in the East Midlands has seen rents increase by more than a fifth (21.1%) to £786 a month.
Hinckley and Bosworth, also in the East Midlands, has seen prices rise by 15.1% to £854 a month, while Runnymede in the South East has seen them rise by 15.1% to £1,590 a month. In Greenwich, London, rents are up 15.0% to £1,818, in Harborough, East Midlands, they’re up by 14.9% to £907 a month, and in Oldham they’re up by 14.7% to £797 a month.
Kensington and Chelsea is the most expensive place to rent in the country, with the average home there going for £3,418 a month.
In Westminster the average rent is £3,099 a month, in Hammersmith and Fulham it’s £2,585 a month, in Islington it’s £2,557 a month, and in Camden it’s £2,482 a month.