Overview
- Newly agreed rents fell 0.7% across Britain in 2025, marking the first full-year drop since Hamptons began records in 2011.
- London recorded a 2.7% annual fall, with average new lets at £2,294 per month and a wide split between inner (£2,754) and outer (£1,956) London.
- Hamptons attributes the decline chiefly to more tenants becoming first-time buyers and fewer young adults entering the market, which freed up rental stock.
- Mortgage access improved in 2025, with lenders advancing a record £82.8bn to 390,000 first-time buyers in the year to September, according to Savills.
- Hamptons’ analysis of 57,000 lets shows rents were also falling by December in the South East, East Midlands, Yorkshire & Humber and Wales, while landlord participation continued to shrink, raising risks of a supply squeeze when the Renters’ Rights Act begins in May.