Average cost of renting a room in London 'has surged past £1,000'

The average cost of renting a room in London's central boroughs has now risen above £1,000, months after Labour's rental reforms took hold. 

The typical tenant must now fork over four figures a month to rent a room in the capital as landlords flee the housing market.

There was a 7.3 per cent drop in the number of advertised rooms compared with last year, data from flatshare platform SpareRoom found.

Labour's Renters' Rights Act promised to put power back into the hands of tenants with the biggest boost to their rights in a generation.

The legislation, which came into force in May, introduced a raft of protections including an end to 'no fault' evictions, caps on rent increases and a ban on fixed-term tenancies.

But the new data shows landlords are fleeing in response to the new rules, shrinking the supply of rooms in London and causing prices to rise above £1,000 for the first time since 2023, when it peaked.

After reaching a high in 2023, average rents in inner London postcodes had been falling, dropping to £974 at the start of 2026. 

The average cost of living in a flatshare in Britain has now risen to a record high of £769 a month.

The typical tenant must now fork over four figures a month to rent a room in the capital after landlords fled the market

Matt Hutchinson, of SpareRoom, told The Telegraph: 'Supply is down because the Renters' Rights Act has driven away landlords – some feel the investment opportunity is no longer worth the effort of compliance.

'Affordable housing is supposed to be a political priority, yet the outlook for meaningful improvement is bleak as the Government hasn't acknowledged these problems.'  

The price of a room in inner London rose from £990 in the third quarter of last year to £1,002 in the same period in 2026.

Rents in outer London fell marginally to an average of £800 from £802.  

A Ministry of Housing spokesman said: 'Our landmark Renters' Rights Act is protecting tenants from excessive rent increases by limiting rent rises to once a year, giving tenants strong powers to challenge above-market increases and banning rental bidding wars.

'The private rented sector has doubled in size since the early 2000s, has remained broadly stable since 2013-14, and there is no evidence of an exodus since our reforms were announced.'

In September, it was revealed that the average rent price in the capital reached a record high in the second quarter of this year. 

Rent prices, for an entire property, reached a record £2,791 per month – a 2 per cent rise on the period from January to March. 

Rents outside of London also jumped 1.9 per cent to a monthly average of £1,397 in the period from April to June, property website Rightmove found.

Laura Meyer, 28, told the Daily Mail she has found it impossible to find an affordable one-bedroom flat in south-west London since the Renters' Rights Act came in. 

'I started looking back in July and have basically hit a wall left, right and centre in terms of the pricing of places,' she said.

'I've even been told outright by estate agents the market right now is the craziest they have seen in 30 years because not only is it summer, but because of the Renters' Rights Act.

'The houses are being listed at the upper price point and this makes it quite difficult for people like me who are coming in and having to under-offer.

'The offers are then not being accepted because they are looking for someone, or holding out hope, that someone will pay the maximum price.'

Ms Meyer is currently paying £1,200 a month to live in a flat with two other people in Parsons Green. 

She said while she had been hoping to find a one-bed for around £1,600 a month, she has now realised the minimum she would have to pay is around £2,000. 

The new legislation, the brainchild of Housing Secretary Angela Rayner, has introduced protections for renters but has been criticised for driving away landlords from the market.