London tops ranking for highest rents in Europe for a third consecutive year

An unfurnished mid-market three-bedroom apartment in prime areas of London costs around £5,398 a month

Rent in the capital is almost four times higher than average rent in other major UK cities (Wetherell)

For a third consecutive year London has been named Europe’s most expensive city in which to rent, despite Brexit causing uncertainty about the future of the financial hub.

In a report published on Wednesday, analytics firm ECA International found that rent in London is currently almost £3,700 higher than the average monthly cost of renting across Europe.

An unfurnished mid-market three-bedroom apartment in prime areas of London costs around £5,398 a month, ECA found, also making rent in the capital almost four times higher than the average rent in other major UK cities.

Alec Smith, accommodation services manager at ECA, said that in recent months the biggest rent increases in the UK had been in Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow, due to high demand. He said that in Aberdeen, the downturn in the oil and gas industry had sent rents sliding.

He pointed out that in London there is still “a large amount of uncertainty in the financial sector in light of the Brexit vote”, but that this doesn’t appear to be deterring renters in swathes.

“It remains to be seen whether financial regulation in the City is likely to change much post-Brexit. Changes to stamp duty in 2016 led to a rush from landlords to purchase buy-to-let properties, which increased the supply of rental accommodation across prime areas of London. This increased competition among landlords contributed to the modest falls in average rent in the UK’s capital, although it is still the most expensive in Europe,” he said.

ECA found Moscow to be the second most expensive European city to rent in, followed by Zurich, Geneva, Istanbul, Kiev, Paris, Amsterdam and Dublin.

Globally, Hong Kong tops the ranking, with the cost of monthly rent for an unfurnished mid-market,three-bedroom apartment in prime locations averaging about $10,461, or about £7,586. ECA attributed Hong Kong’s sky-high prices to high population density and a “consistently limited supply of property”.