Londoners have consistently paid between 40-57 per cent of their monthly household income on rent since 2015, according to the ONS.
Outside London, this figure lies much lower, between 20 and 35 per cent – to be officially designated ‘affordable’ housing costs should account for no more than a third of take home pay.
Tellingly, all areas in London had average rents that were more than a third of the average take home pay, which is currently just under £3,000 per month.
But if you want to make your money stretch as far as possible without leaving London, Hamptons analysis has identified the cheapest places to rent in the capital.
The research covered the entire rental market, including newly let properties and existing tenancies, as well as analysing rent paid by sharers and those with single occupancies.
Head to outer Zones for cheaper rents
Unsurprisingly, the data showed the cheapest places to rent in were all in outer London, with Bexley topping the table.
Average rents in the south-east London borough, formerly part of Kent and including such areas as Sidcup, Erith and Welling, were £1,325 a month.
The Superloop bus network has strengthened transport links in parts of the borough, including the thriving town centre of Bexleyheath, while trains link the borough to Charing Cross and Canon Street.
Langton’s House & Gardens in Hornchurch, Havering (Daniel Lynch)
The borough of Havering in east London was the second cheapest for private tenants, with an average rent of £1,380. The borough’s biggest town is Romford, which is on the Elizabeth line and has seen some of the strongest house price growth along the line since it opened.
Third cheapest was the south-west London borough of Croydon where rent averaged £1,420 a month.
For those determined to live more centrally, the least expensive inner London borough was Greenwich, which stretches along the river from the historic grandeur of Maritime Greenwich to the regeneration zone of Thamesmead and south to New Eltham. Average rents here were £1,800 per month.
London rents set to rise further
A recent report by Savills forecast that rents in the capital are set to increase by 2.5 per cent over 2025 and 14.2 per cent over the next five years, while Hamptons predicts a similar upwards trend.
“While rental growth across London cooled in 2024, we expect rents to pick up pace again in 2025,” said Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons.
“This is likely to be led by the more affordable outer areas of the capital, where rents fell during the last three months of the year following double-digit growth in 2023.
“While rents in outer London fell 1.4 per cent annually in December, the average tenant is still paying nearly £5,000 a year more than they were in 2019.
“The scale of these increases will continue to push more tenants in search of more affordable, or smaller properties, often found on the fringes of the capital.”