Rental inflation continued to track well below wider inflationary metrics in May, according to Goodlord.
After April’s figures brought about the lowest year-on-year rental inflation in nine months, average rents in May 2026 continue to sit just 1.7% higher than they were at the same point in 2025. This suggests last month’s data was not an anomaly.
By comparison, a year ago in May 2025 rents were increasing 3.6% per year.
In May 2026, the average cost of a rental property in England was £1,211. For the second month running, this represents just a 1.7% increase on the average price recorded twelve months ago (May 2025), when rents stood at £1,191 per property.
Just as in April, this means the level of annual rental inflation in May 2026 is less than half that recorded during the same month last year, when rents were up 3.6% year-on-year.
April’s figure marked the smallest year-on-year rent increase seen since July 2025. May’s continued low inflation is further evidence of a market that has cooled in recent months.
After April saw prices fall for the first time this year, May’s figures show a slight uptick in month-on-month rents.
In April rents fell to £1,205. In May, this figure grew to £1,211, representing a 0.5% increase.
Despite this rise, average rents across England remain marginally lower than they were in March of this year, when they stood at £1,212. This makes 2026 the first year since COVID hit the market in 2020 that prices have been lower in May than they were two months earlier in March.
May’s nationwide rent increase was due in large part to prices bouncing back across Yorkshire and the Humber and the North East.
The North East saw rents fall 4.9% in April, but this figure jumped back up with a 5.5% rise in May. Meanwhile, Yorkshire and the Humber saw a 3.2% increase in May, recovering from a 2.8% drop in April.
Greater London, the South East and the West Midlands all saw marginal month-on-month increases, while rents across the East Midlands, East of England, South West and North West were lower in May than they were in April.
In 2025, the month-on-month rental inflation from April to May was 2.1%. This year’s comparatively low rise is reflective of the slow growth we’ve seen throughout 2026 so far.
After recording the highest year-on-year rental inflation of any region in April (4.8%), Greater London topped the charts again in May.
Rents in the capital were up 5.6% in the twelve months to May 2026, rising from £2,077 to £2,194.
Inflation across the North of England had been significantly outstripping price rises seen across the rest of the country in the first quarter of 2026. After cooling off in April, May’s figures for the North East, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber stood at 3.9%, 1.6% and 3.2% respectively.
Having seen a 4% year-on-year increase in April, the East Midlands recorded a 1% drop in annual inflation in May 2026.
Meanwhile, year-on-year rents in the South West (-0.4%) and the East of England (-1.5%) continued to fall last month.
