Rightmove’s July 2025 Rental Price Tracker offered a snapshot of asking rents and listing activity at a time when growth had slowed from the rapid increases seen earlier in the decade. It is historical platform data, not a measure of rents today or a complete census of every UK tenancy.
For newly advertised homes outside London, Rightmove reported average asking rent of £1,365 a month in the second quarter of 2025, up 1.2% on the first quarter. Its annual growth measure was 3.9%, the lowest since 2020 according to the portal. In London, average asking rent was £2,712 a month after a 0.5% quarterly rise. The figures describe advertised asking prices on Rightmove; they do not tell us what every tenant ultimately agreed to pay, nor how existing tenancies were priced.
The tracker also pointed to a less pressured balance on the site than a year earlier. Rightmove counted 15% more homes available to rent and 10% fewer prospective tenants contacting agents. The average listing received 11 enquiries, compared with 16 in the same period a year before. That was still above the seven enquiries reported for 2019, so the comparison did not mean the market had returned to its pre-pandemic pattern.
Homes were also taking longer to find a tenant on the platform: 25 days on average, against 21 days a year earlier. Rightmove said nearly a quarter of listings had a price reduction during marketing, the highest share since 2017. Those measures can help explain why some landlords faced a different letting environment in summer 2025, but results varied by area, property type and asking price. They should not be read as a guarantee that a particular property would let quickly or require a reduction.
The useful lesson from this dated snapshot is to distinguish asking prices from achieved rents and national averages from local conditions. A landlord reviewing a property should compare current nearby listings and, where available, completed-let evidence; assess the home’s condition and likely running costs; and avoid treating a year-old portal tracker as a live valuation. For tenants, a larger choice of listings may create more time to compare options, but affordability and availability still depend on location and individual circumstances.