Asking rents reached new records outside London and in the capital in the second quarter of 2026, while the number of available rental homes fell below the previous year’s level for the first time since 2022. Read those two facts together and the obvious conclusion is a tightening market. The third number in the same release complicates that, and it is the one worth paying attention to.
In short
- Asking rents hit new records outside London (£1,397 a month) and in London (£2,791 a month) in Q2 2026.
- Available rental homes fell around 1% year on year, the first annual fall since 2022.
- Enquiries per property have more than halved from the 2022 peak, down to 10 from 22.
- Rental growth of around 2% to 3% a year is the more defensible planning assumption, not the 5%-plus of recent years.
- Licensing fees, energy efficiency rules and borrowing costs are all rising, squeezing net yield even as headline rents set records.
Record asking rents, falling supply
According to Rightmove’s Q2 2026 rental release, published on 16 July 2026:
| Outside London | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Average rent | £1,397 pcm | £2,791 pcm |
| Change on the quarter | +1.9% | +2.0% |
| Change year on year | +2.3% | +2.9% |
Supply moved the other way.
The number of available rental homes is now around 1% below where it stood at the same point in 2025, the first annual fall since 2022.
These are advertised asking rents on one portal, not achieved rents across the whole market, and Rightmove has a commercial interest in the rental market it measures. The series is large and consistent enough to be a good directional read, but it is a measure of what landlords are asking rather than what tenants are finally paying.
Enquiries per property are less than half the 2022 peak
Competition per property is falling, not rising. The average rental home received 10 enquiries in the quarter, against 11 a year earlier and 22 at the peak of competition in 2022.
That is a striking figure. Enquiries per property have more than halved from the peak even as supply has started to tighten again. Rents are still setting records, but the frenzy that produced the sharp rent growth of recent years has substantially unwound.
The sensible reading is that rent growth is now running at roughly the low single digits, close to or below general inflation, rather than the double-digit jumps of the post-pandemic period.
Affordability is doing what it eventually does: capping how far rents can run ahead of wages.
Underwriting rental growth
The practical implication is that rental growth assumptions need to come down. A model built on 5% or more annual rent growth is extrapolating a period that has ended. Growth of around 2% to 3%, in line with these figures, is the more defensible planning assumption, and it needs to be set against operating costs that are rising faster.
That squeeze is the real story for a leveraged buyer. Licensing fees have passed £1,000 per property in Thurrock, with Preston and Liverpool consulting at similar levels, energy efficiency obligations are coming, and borrowing has moved above 5.5%: Moneyfacts put its average new mortgage rate at 5.68% in mid-September 2026, and, according to Moneyfacts, the mortgage comparison site, lenders were still repricing upwards in the week that followed. If rents grow at 2% while costs grow faster, net yield compresses even in a market setting record headline rents.
What this means for property investors
Underwrite rent growth at low single digits. If a deal needs 5% annual rent growth to work, it is relying on conditions that these figures say have passed. Test it at 2% and see whether it still stands.
Fewer enquiries per property is worth watching as a void indicator. At 22 enquiries a property you could be careless about pricing and presentation. At 10 you cannot. Be clear that this is a leading indicator rather than evidence of distress: Rightmove reads the same data as a market stabilising, and 10 enquiries is still double the pre-pandemic average of 5.
But overpricing a unit costs more now than it did at the peak, and void is the cost that quietly destroys a leveraged return.
Tightening supply favours stock that is hard to replicate. Rightmove attributes the fall mainly to fewer newly listed properties coming to market rather than to stock letting faster, and offers no view on why. Our own reading, and it is a reading rather than something in the data, is that supply-constrained locations and harder-to-replace assets such as well-run HMOs and blocks feel that tightening first.
Be careful about reading a national average onto a specific street. A 2.3% national figure conceals wide local variation, and rental demand is far more local than sale prices are. Local letting agents and actual void periods on comparable stock tell you more than a national index will.
If you own a rental and are weighing up selling, get a free desktop valuation: an evidence-backed range within 24 hours, yours whether you sell or not.
If you are buying on income in a market where rent growth is normalising, the entry price and the quality of the tenancy do the work. Browse our current listings or join the insider list for off-market opportunities.
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