Home tracks the lettings market too

When people talk about the property market, they usually mean the sales market. But for the majority of people moving home in any given year, renting is the decision they are making.

Home covers the lettings market as well as the sales market, and we have made that clearer in how we present our data.

What rental market data tells you

The same logic that makes supply data useful for buyers applies to renters and landlords. In a market where rental stock is low, competition for properties is higher and rents tend to stay firm or rise. When supply is building, tenants have more bargaining power and landlords face longer void periods. We have written before about why stock levels matter more than price for reading a market, and lettings is no exception.

Our house prices data now explicitly labels rental supply alongside sales supply for each area. You can see at a glance whether the lettings market in a given postcode is tight or loose, and how asking rents have been moving. That sits alongside our broader work on postcode-level UK housing supply, which is built from the same underlying listings feed.

Home currently tracks 1,249,531 live UK property listings across sale and rental combined, so the rental picture for most postcodes is built on a meaningful sample rather than a handful of agents' boards.

For tenants moving to a new area

If you are relocating for work or moving to a new city, the question is rarely "what does the average rent cost?" It is "how quickly do I need to move on a property I like?" Rental stock levels tell you that. A low-supply market means you need to be ready to commit quickly. A high-supply market gives you time to compare.

For landlords thinking about pricing

Setting an asking rent slightly above the local market in a high-demand area often costs you nothing. Setting it the same way in a soft market means void periods. The rental supply figures help you calibrate.

Where to find it

All of our rental data is on the house prices pages, clearly labelled by property type and market segment. You can also browse properties to rent to see live rental listings in any area, or read how we measure the UK property market for more on the methodology behind these figures.

Rental figures are derived from active lettings listings on Home. They represent asking rents, not achieved rents, and should be read as directional market signals.

Further reading: the government's How to Rent guide.