Recent research has found that rent prices in London are the most expensive of any city in the world, at an average of £2,083 per month, after rising by 4% last year alone.
And while renting in the capital may seem impossible for some people, the huge gap between prices across London means that there is still hope for many prospective tenants.
Property investment firm CBRE found that Bexley is the most affordable London borough in which to rent, after examining 32 cities across the world. The average rental property in Bexley now costs around £1,007 per month.
Bexley, Havering, and Barking and Dagenham – all in the southeast of the capital – were named as the most affordable boroughs in London, with the average rent across the three areas more than £2,000 a month cheaper than in the most expensive borough.
Most affordable London boroughs for renters
| Position | Borough |
Rent per month |
| 1 | Bexley | £1,007 |
| 2 | Havering | £1,083 |
| 3 | Barking and Dagenham | £1,162 |
| 4 | Sutton | £1,166 |
| 5 | Bromley | £1,271 |
| 6 | Enfield | £1,285 |
| 7 | Redbridge | £1,293 |
| 8 | Croydon | £1,309 |
| 9 | Waltham Forest | £1,309 |
| 10 | Hillingdon | £1,311 |
The three most expensive boroughs for tenants are Kensington and Chelsea, the City of Westminster and the City of London, all with average rents of around £3,000.
Most expensive London boroughs for renters
| Position | Borough |
Rent per month |
| 1 | Kensington and Chelsea | £3,405 |
| 2 | City of Westminster | £3,062 |
| 3 | City of London | £2,945 |
| 4 | Camden | £2,615 |
| 5 | Islington | £2,282 |
| 6 | Hammersmith & Fulham | £2,168 |
| 7 | Tower Hamlets | £2,163 |
| 8 | Lambeth | £2,093 |
| 9 | Hackney | £2,088 |
| 10 | Wandsworth | £1,889 |
Although rent prices in Bexley are the cheapest in the capital, the borough has also experienced the fastest price growth over the past 12 months – rent there has risen by 10% in the last year, says CBRE.
Renting in London – Only a Few Places are Still Affordable
There is a huge demand for rental property in Bexley due to good transport links, parks and low prices. Online letting agent Rentify found that last year, it was the second most searched for borough in London.
Head of Residential Research at CBRE, Jennet Siebrits, says Bexley – which was also the cheapest borough in 2015 – has remained affordable because of its location.
She explains: “It is a great place to live, but in outer London and therefore priced accordingly, it’s typically a family location, so hasn’t been a huge rental market. But its cheaper rents have attracted renters, hence the growth.”
Excluding London, rents around the UK sit at an average of £749 per month, after increasing by 3.5% over the year, according to the latest quarterly rental index from Homelet.
The firm reveals that the gap between rents in the capital and the rest of the UK is now the highest ever recorded.
Siebrits says the strength of the rental market reflects a sharp rise in the amount of tenants in London over the last ten years.
She says: “Renting is becoming ever more popular, with a significant increase in renters. This partly reflects affordability constraints – even before the financial crisis we were seeing an uptick, but it has magnified since the crisis – and subsequent credit constraints.”
She adds that the rise in immigration has led to more demand for rental accommodation: “London is arguably the global financial centre and attracts the top international conglomerate companies, which have workers who need temporary rental accommodation.
“At the other end, we attract Europeans who come here for employment opportunities, who also need accommodation and are not able to access the owner-occupation market.”1