Advertised rents in London rose 8.7% year-on-year in July despite a continued fall in tenant enquiries, according to figures from Hello Neighbour.
The annual increase accelerated from 6.4% in June. At the same time, the average number of enquiries per property fell to 34 in July from 43 in June and 50 in July 2025.
That compares with 51 enquiries per property in July 2024 and 93 in July 2023.
Hello Neighbour said the figures showed an emerging trend of rents increasing while demand declines, which it attributed to reduced net migration and affordability pressures. It said rental supply remained stable.
The online agency also reported a widening gap between advertised and achieved rents, from 1.4 percentage points in June to 2.7 in July.
It argued that changes introduced by the Renters’ Rights Act were encouraging landlords to advertise properties at higher initial rents because they can no longer accept offers above the advertised amount and face a more restrictive process for increasing rents during a tenancy.
According to Hello Neighbour, this gives landlords an incentive to advertise above the level they ultimately expect to achieve, with the widening gap between asking and agreed rents cited as evidence of the trend.
The agency expects rental growth to continue during the remainder of the year, predicting that demand will stabilise as the effects of reduced net migration ease.
It also said landlords’ response to the Renters’ Rights Act was likely to become more established during the coming months.
