UK room rents have reached record highs in six of the country’s regions at the same time as the supply of flatshare rooms has contracted for the first time in three years, according to the latest rental index from SpareRoom.
The average cost of renting a room in the UK now stands at £761 a month, up 0.5 per cent on the previous year and nearly 7 per cent higher over the past three years, the flatshare platform found.
For landlords running HMOs and room-by-room lets, the combination of record rents and shrinking supply points to a market where pricing power is quietly shifting back towards owners, even as headline rent inflation cools.
Supply cracks after three years of growth
Room supply had been expanding steadily for three years, but the second quarter of 2026 broke that run. The number of rooms available fell 3.2 per cent compared with the same period a year earlier, according to SpareRoom.
That reversal matters. A growing pool of rooms had been acting as a brake on rents, and its removal helps explain why records are being set in so many regions at once.
It also sits within a wider cooling market. Average UK private rents rose 3.3 per cent to £1,383 in the 12 months to May 2026, according to the Office for National Statistics, with annual growth slowing steadily through the year.
East Anglia leads as the south surges
East Anglia recorded the sharpest rise in room rents over the past three years, up 9.9 per cent, followed by the South East at 9.5 per cent and the South West at 9.4 per cent. The South West also posted the strongest year-on-year growth of any region, at 1.6 per cent.
By country, rents hit record highs in Wales and Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland rents rose 12 per cent in the three years to Q2 2026 and 3.8 per cent year on year, with Belfast setting a new record of £600 a month in the quarter. Welsh rents have climbed 9.3 per cent over three years.
Greater London is the exception. It was the only region to record a year-on-year fall, with rents down 0.2 per cent, a wobble that follows a period in which the London lettings market had been holding up well despite the arrival of the Renters’ Rights Act.
Norwich climbs while Lincoln slips
Among the 30 UK cities with the most flatshare supply in Q2 2026, Norwich saw the biggest jump in room rents, up 5.1 per cent, while Lincoln recorded the largest fall, down 4 per cent.
London remains the most expensive place to rent a room at £979 a month, ahead of Edinburgh at £834 and Oxford at £814. Lincoln (£510), Swansea (£532) and Sheffield (£533) are the cheapest.
The cheap end of the table is not standing still, however. Sheffield’s Q2 figure matched the record set in Q3 2025 and is rising 1.4 per cent year on year, while Liverpool hit a fresh record of £556, with rents up 4.4 per cent annually.
What record UK room rents mean for investors
For portfolio investors, the SpareRoom data strengthens the case for room-by-room strategies, particularly in regional cities where records are still being set from a low base. The debate over HMOs versus single lets tilts further towards multi-let models when room rents outpace whole-property rents and supply is tightening.
The caveat is operational. Higher room rents come with the heavier regulatory load that multi-let landlords carry, and the legal responsibilities every HMO landlord must understand have only grown. If supply keeps falling while demand holds, expect record highs to spread beyond six regions before the year is out.
