Households renting privately experienced the steepest rise in living costs among all tenure types, according to the latest House Costs Indices (HCI) report published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The data shows that private renter households faced an annual inflation rate of 3.6% in March 2025, the highest of any tenure group. This increase reflects a continued climb in private rental payments, which alone contributed 2.2 percentage points to the overall inflation rate for these households.
Social and other renter households followed, with an annual inflation rate of 3.0%. For these households, rental payments accounted for 1.7 percentage points of the annual rise.
In contrast, those who own their homes outright saw the lowest increase in costs, with an annual inflation rate of just 1.8%. Households with mortgages recorded a slightly higher rate of 2.8%, placing them second-lowest on the inflation scale.
Despite the recent spike in private rental inflation, the five-year outlook tells a different story. From 2020 to 2025, private renters saw the smallest cumulative rise in housing costs—26.6%. Outright owners followed at 27.7%, with social and other renters at 29.8%, and mortgagor households bearing the largest five-year increase at 32.1%.
Responding to the figures, Angharad Trueman, president of ARLA Propertymark, called on policymakers to take urgent action.
“With private rents seeing their highest annual inflation rate in March 2025, it remains more vital than ever the UK government and the devolved administrations take a wide-angle view regarding taxes impacting the private rental sector,” she said. “We must look at ways to encourage and support new investment for the long term.”
Trueman warned that current tax and regulatory pressures are driving up costs and reducing the availability of rental properties in some areas, compounding the challenges faced by tenants.
The ONS figures come amid growing scrutiny of the housing market, as affordability concerns continue to dominate headlines and political agendas nationwide.