Average housing association rent in England reaches £121.72 a week
New figures from the social housing regulator show rents rose 3.2% last year, while the number of homes let at the lowest social rents fell by about 1,700.
Housing association tenants in England were paying an average of £121.72 a week in social rent at the end of March, according to annual figures from the Regulator of Social Housing published on Tuesday.
That works out at a little over £6,300 a year. The average went up by 3.2% between April 2025 and March 2026.
Rents vary widely across the country. The cheapest region is the North East, where the average housing association social rent is £100.31 a week. London is the most expensive at £154.73. Council rents are lower on average than those charged by housing associations, the regulator said.
The government limit on rent rises for existing social tenants was 2.7% for 2025/26. The regulator explained that the overall average can come out higher than the cap because new homes join the figures, some properties are exempt, and landlords can move a home to the government's formula rent when it is let to a new tenant.
More homes, but fewer at the lowest rents
Social landlords owned about 4.6 million homes across England at the end of March, a net rise of around 36,000 in a year. Housing associations own about 3 million of them and councils 1.6 million.
Most of the growth came from homes let at Affordable Rent rather than social rent. The number of these homes went up by more than 24,000. Shared ownership and other low-cost home ownership homes rose by 13,390.
The number of homes let at social rent fell by just over 1,700. Housing associations added 7,829 of them, but councils had 9,570 fewer, which the regulator said was likely to be mainly down to Right to Buy sales and similar schemes.
General needs homes, let at either social rent or Affordable Rent, make up 82% of all social housing. Supported housing accounts for 11%, and low-cost home ownership for 6%.
London has the largest share of the country's social homes, at 19.4%, and the North East the smallest, at 5.4%. Birmingham has more social homes than any other council area, with just over 107,000.
The figures are based on returns from the 1,580 landlords on the regulator's register at 31 March, made up of 230 councils and 1,350 housing associations and other private providers.
