Hamptons says rents on newly agreed tenancies in Britain rose 1.9% year on year in July, taking the average new-let bill back above £1,401 a month and marking the fastest pace of growth for 19 months.
The latest update points to a fresh shift in rental pricing after several softer months. Southern England drove much of the pick-up, with newly agreed rents in Outer London moving back above £2,000 a month and the South East crossing £1,500 for the first time.
For landlords, the figures matter because they suggest pricing power has not disappeared after the first wave of post-Renters’ Rights Act adjustment. Borrowing costs remain high, but stronger new-let growth offers some support for investors still weighing whether yields can hold up through the autumn.
Southern England led the July rent acceleration
According to Hamptons data reported on Monday, annual growth in newly agreed rents reached 1.9% in July, while the average for all tenants, including those staying put, eased from 2.2% to 2.1%.
The regional split is where the picture gets more interesting. Newly agreed rents rose 2.8% in both the South and South East, 3.7% in the South West and 3.3% in the West Midlands. By contrast, Scotland’s new-let growth slipped to -0.2%, even though average rent rises on existing tenancies there still stood at 7.7% where an increase took place.
David Fell, lead analyst at Hamptons, said the return of an upward path in rents gives landlords “a counterweight to higher borrowing costs” even if rent growth is still running below inflation.
This follows Residential Landlord’s July analysis of Hamptons’ earlier rent-growth pick-up and earlier reporting on HomeLet’s July rental index. The latest Hamptons figures add a different signal: not just what tenants are paying overall, but where fresh deals are starting to move higher again.
Why the gap between new lets and sitting tenants still matters
Hamptons said the average tenant across Britain is paying £1,258 a month, compared with £1,401 for someone moving home. That spread matters for landlords because it shows how much of the market’s pricing is still concentrated at re-let stage rather than across whole portfolios.
It also suggests a practical limit to how quickly income can recover for landlords with stable long-term tenants. Investors may be seeing stronger numbers on newly marketed homes, but many existing tenancies are still rising more slowly. In other words, the headline improvement in rent growth will not flow evenly through every portfolio.
There is also a timing issue. If southern growth stays firmer while inflation cools, landlords in higher-cost regions may regain some margin without pushing into the sort of sharp rent jumps that drove political backlash in 2024 and 2025. But if wage growth stays weak, affordability will tighten again quickly, especially in London commuter markets.
Opinion
The July figures do not point to another runaway rent surge, but they do show the market still has more pricing strength than some policymakers seem to assume. That is awkward for ministers who want affordability relief without doing much about supply. If new-let growth is turning up again before the autumn, landlords will ask why they should believe the pressure has really eased.
