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THE COST OF RENTING A ROOM IN EVERY LONDON BOROUGH
Published by Gbaf News
Posted on February 21, 2018
5 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Whether you’re a graduate who has landed a new job in the capital and is making the move for the first time, or a resident Londoner wondering if you’re getting the best value for your money, your choice of London borough can impact your rent dramatically. Leading price comparison website MoneySuperMarket has crunched the data to reveal the cost of renting a room in a three-bedroom flat, from Hillingdon to Havering and Barnet to Bromley, so you can work out where to settle in the city.
The infographic factors in the average cost of renting a three-bedroom flat in each of the 32 London boroughs, which has then been divided by three to find the individual cost per person, per month and ranked from least to most expensive.
Barking and Dagenham and Bexley are London’s Cheapest Boroughs
For those ready to take the plunge into London living, Barking and Dagenham or Bexley are the most cost-effective places to rent.
Barking & Dagenham is located in zone four, East London, and is served by the District and Hammersmith & City tube lines, as well as the c2c and London Overground. With a plethora of transport options for city workers, not only is Barking and Dagenham the joint-cheapest borough in which to rent, it’s also exceptionally well connected. For both this borough and the borough of Bexley, an individual sharing a three-bedroom flat can expect to spend £442 per month on rent on average. This is well below the average for London as a whole, which, even when excluding the notoriously expensive boroughs of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea, averages at £1,165 per person.
Bexley, located in South East London, has direct links to both Charing Cross and Cannon Street making it a great option for young professionals looking to save money and keep their commute simple.
The top five cheapest boroughs are:
- Barking and Dagenham – £442 per month
- Bexley – £442 per month
- Havering – £450 per month
- Enfield – £533 per month
- Hillingdon – £600 per month
In addition to this, MoneySuperMarket has also created a new interactive tool allowing users to enter the amount they are currently paying for their rent per month and compare this both to other London boroughs and to other cities across the UK. The results of the tool then show both where they could be getting a cheaper deal and where their rent would cost significantly more.
Kevin Pratt, consumer affairs expert at MoneySuperMarket, said: “It’s astonishing to see the huge disparities in rental prices for tenants from borough to borough in London. Even a distance of a few miles can change the cost of a flat by many hundreds of pounds. If you compare the rental cost of a big house in Westminster to Barking, you can measure the difference in thousands.”
Find out the cheapest and most expensive boroughs to rent in London with the new infographic on the MoneySuperMarket website here.
Whether you’re a graduate who has landed a new job in the capital and is making the move for the first time, or a resident Londoner wondering if you’re getting the best value for your money, your choice of London borough can impact your rent dramatically. Leading price comparison website MoneySuperMarket has crunched the data to reveal the cost of renting a room in a three-bedroom flat, from Hillingdon to Havering and Barnet to Bromley, so you can work out where to settle in the city.
The infographic factors in the average cost of renting a three-bedroom flat in each of the 32 London boroughs, which has then been divided by three to find the individual cost per person, per month and ranked from least to most expensive.
Barking and Dagenham and Bexley are London’s Cheapest Boroughs
For those ready to take the plunge into London living, Barking and Dagenham or Bexley are the most cost-effective places to rent.
Barking & Dagenham is located in zone four, East London, and is served by the District and Hammersmith & City tube lines, as well as the c2c and London Overground. With a plethora of transport options for city workers, not only is Barking and Dagenham the joint-cheapest borough in which to rent, it’s also exceptionally well connected. For both this borough and the borough of Bexley, an individual sharing a three-bedroom flat can expect to spend £442 per month on rent on average. This is well below the average for London as a whole, which, even when excluding the notoriously expensive boroughs of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea, averages at £1,165 per person.
Bexley, located in South East London, has direct links to both Charing Cross and Cannon Street making it a great option for young professionals looking to save money and keep their commute simple.
The top five cheapest boroughs are:
- Barking and Dagenham – £442 per month
- Bexley – £442 per month
- Havering – £450 per month
- Enfield – £533 per month
- Hillingdon – £600 per month
In addition to this, MoneySuperMarket has also created a new interactive tool allowing users to enter the amount they are currently paying for their rent per month and compare this both to other London boroughs and to other cities across the UK. The results of the tool then show both where they could be getting a cheaper deal and where their rent would cost significantly more.
Kevin Pratt, consumer affairs expert at MoneySuperMarket, said: “It’s astonishing to see the huge disparities in rental prices for tenants from borough to borough in London. Even a distance of a few miles can change the cost of a flat by many hundreds of pounds. If you compare the rental cost of a big house in Westminster to Barking, you can measure the difference in thousands.”
Find out the cheapest and most expensive boroughs to rent in London with the new infographic on the MoneySuperMarket website here.
