Goodlord: England rents up 6.5% in June 2026, from just 1.7% in April and May. Section 13 limits rent rises on existing tenancies to once per 52 weeks, so landlords are pricing new lettings to the maximum the market will bear from day one. The Act changed when rents rise. It did not stop them rising.
What Has Happened?
The Goodlord Rental Index is a monthly dataset measuring average rents agreed on new tenancy contracts across England, processed through Goodlord's letting agent platform. On 2 July 2026, Goodlord published its June 2026 figures. Annual rent growth for new lettings stood at 6.5%, compared to 1.7% in both April and May. The average new tenancy rent in England in June was £1,309 per month. In June 2025, the same index showed £1,229. Year on year, that is £80 per month more on a typical new let.
Yorkshire and the Humber recorded the largest regional jump: 16% annually and 12.6% month on month. The South West and North East also recorded double-digit annual growth. William Reeve, Chief Executive of Goodlord, attributed the acceleration directly to the Renters' Rights Act, which came fully into force on 1 May 2026.
Section 13 of the Act introduced the formal rent increase procedure for periodic tenancies. A landlord can propose a rent increase once per 52-week period using a statutory Form 4A notice. The tenant has the right to refer the proposed increase to the First-tier Tribunal for assessment against the open market rate. Section 13 applies to ongoing tenancies. At the start of a new tenancy, the landlord sets the agreed rent freely. From that point, the Section 13 clock runs, and the first permitted increase is twelve months away at the earliest.
The commercial logic is visible in the June data. Landlords are starting new lettings at the highest achievable market rent, because raising it later requires a formal process and a full year's wait. Goodlord's month-on-month jump from 1.7% to 6.5% annual growth is the market adjusting to that incentive structure in the first six weeks the Act has been live.
HomeLet's Rental Index for June 2026 adds the cross-market picture. The UK average rent across all tenancy types tracked by HomeLet was £1,353 per month in June, up 1.0% on May and 3.4% on June 2025. London averaged £2,181 per month, up 5.0% annually. Excluding London, the UK HomeLet average was £1,157. HomeLet and Goodlord use different methodologies; HomeLet's broader dataset produces a lower national headline because it covers existing as well as new tenancies, whereas Goodlord's 6.5% captures only the new-letting market.
Why This Matters to UK Property Investors
The Goodlord 6.5% figure measures new lettings only. The gap between 1.7% in May and 6.5% in June is the repricing that happens when a vacant property is re-let under the new rules. This matters for two distinct reasons.
First, it tells you the rental market has already adapted to Section 13, faster than most commentary predicted. A landlord who re-lets a two-bedroom in Sheffield in June 2026 and prices at market rate is setting a floor that holds for at least twelve months, irrespective of what the market does in the interim. A landlord who re-lets below market rate because they are not tracking the index is starting from a lower base and is twelve months away from the first opportunity to correct it. That gap compounds.
Second, Yorkshire and the Humber's 16% annual increase is not arbitrary. It is the region where landlord supply has thinned significantly as smaller operators have left the market since 2022. When supply exits and demand does not, rents rise. Section 13 amplifies the effect by concentrating repricing at the moment of new lettings rather than spreading it across mid-tenancy reviews. The combination of tighter supply and the new pricing dynamic pushed Yorkshire new-let rents to their highest year-on-year growth rate in the Goodlord dataset.
The HomeLet figures add macro context. London at 5.0% annual growth and £2,181 per month matters for London investors who have been managing sitting tenants at below-market rents. The gap between the current HomeLet benchmark and a long-running tenancy agreed at 2022 prices can now be substantial. For yield-focused investors in the North, the regionally relevant numbers are 16% in Yorkshire and Humber, and double-digit growth in the North East and South West, markets where the income case has strengthened materially in the past twelve months.
At a national level, new-tenancy rent growth at 6.5% is running at nearly double wage growth of 3.4% and more than double May 2026 CPI of 3.0%. That divergence is the supply-demand problem playing out in real numbers. The PRS lost approximately 700 properties per day to landlord exits through 2025. Each exit removes a supply unit. Remaining tenants bid for fewer available properties, and starting rents move up. The Goodlord June 2026 data is the clearest single-month evidence that this mechanism is running.
The Risks Investors Need to Understand
The 6.5% Goodlord figure applies to new lettings only. Existing tenancies in the same portfolio move at a different pace. An investor with three properties where all tenants have been in place since early 2025 will see portfolio-level rent growth closer to the ONS Private Rental Index figure, currently 3.4% for England to May 2026. The Goodlord data is a leading indicator for re-lets and new acquisitions. It does not mean every property in a portfolio is growing at 6.5%.
Section 13 creates a specific administrative risk that is easy to underestimate. The right to propose a rent increase does not happen automatically. The landlord must serve Form 4A with proper statutory notice. If the 52-week window passes without Form 4A being served, the right is not extinguished, but a further 52-week cycle runs from whenever notice is next given. On a two-bedroom in Leeds generating £900 per month, a missed Form 4A window costs approximately £900 to £1,260 in unrealised rent growth depending on the proposed increase. Across a portfolio of ten or twelve properties with different tenancy start dates, this is a diary-management problem that needs a system, not a memory.
The Tribunal route under the new Act is largely untested at scale in England. Goodlord's CEO specifically noted that the spike in starting rents creates new affordability pressure for tenants. Those who find new tenancies priced beyond their reach may refer landlord Form 4A increases to the Tribunal. Tribunal capacity is already stretched following the abolition of Section 21. A pattern of routine referrals for Form 4A increases, similar to Scotland's Private Residential Tenancy regime, is not implausible. Landlords with current market evidence, properly served statutory forms, and realistic increase proposals will fare well. Those who serve informally worded or undocumented increases will not.
Yorkshire's 16% annual growth compresses affordability in a region where average wages sit below the national median. Doncaster, Hull, and Bradford have local economies where rapid rent increases meet constrained household income. In those specific markets, affordability acts as a ceiling. The 16% figure is an aggregate across all of Yorkshire and the Humber. Not every postcode within it will sustain the same rate, and pushing a new tenancy rent above what the local tenant pool can realistically pay trades short-term headline growth for longer void periods and higher turnover costs.
Where the Opportunity Could Be
The most actionable implication of this data is in active portfolio management around the Section 13 cycle. A portfolio where every Form 4A is served on schedule, and every increase is evidenced against the current Goodlord or HomeLet benchmark for that specific area, closes the gap between the 1.7% that existing tenancies were growing at in May and the 6.5% that new lettings achieved in June. That gap is not market luck. It is a management discipline applied consistently across twelve tenancies instead of three.
Yorkshire and the Humber at 16% year-on-year growth is a credible acquisition target region at current entry prices. Leeds LS11 and LS12, Huddersfield HD1 to HD5, and parts of Bradford are markets where terraced housing at £90,000 to £130,000 is still generating gross yields of 8% to 9.5%. Those yields, set at June 2026 new-let market rents, produce positive leverage against five-year BTL fixed rates of 4.71% to 4.87%. An investor entering in July 2026 sets the starting rent at the highest current market rate and manages the Section 13 cycle from year one.
HomeLet's London figure of 5.0% growth and £2,181 per month is relevant for London investors holding stock where sitting tenants are on below-market rents agreed pre-2023. When those tenancies end, the re-let opportunity reflects the full market movement since the original agreement. In some inner London boroughs, that gap between a tenancy agreed at 2021 rents and a June 2026 re-let at market rate can run to £300 to £500 per month on a two-bedroom property. Reinvesting in specification before the re-let, to capture the HomeLet premium bracket, sharpens the uplift further.
For investors in markets where supply has thinned most, the Goodlord data confirms that the mechanics they were anticipating are now running. The question shifts from whether rents will rise to how well positioned a specific portfolio is to capture that rise through proper Form 4A administration and market-rate setting at new-tenancy inception.
Arsh's Investor View
I have been watching the Goodlord index for a few months because it captures what is actually happening on new lettings faster than ONS. The jump from 1.7% in May to 6.5% in June is not noise. It is the market repricing around Section 13. I have been doing it myself on properties that came vacant since the Act came in. The commercial logic is not complicated: I know I cannot increase rent again for twelve months without a formal Form 4A process, so I start at the market rate, not slightly below it to be agreeable. I still prefer a reliable tenant over squeezing the last £50 per month. But the market rate itself has moved up, so what feels like ordinary pricing has gone up with it.
What concerns me a little is the affordability ceiling in some of the regions showing the biggest jumps. Yorkshire at 16% is a striking number. But Hull and Doncaster are not Zone 2 London. There is a point at which new tenancy rents in lower-wage markets stop being achievable by the tenant pool that actually wants to live there. When that ceiling hits, you do not get 16% growth, you get void periods instead. I would rather run a property at £750 per month with a solid tenant in place than at £900 per month and two months void between lettings. The Section 13 clock still runs either way, and the income over twelve months often ends up similar, but the management overhead and tenant quality risk of setting too high a starting rent on thin-margin properties is not worth it.
On the Form 4A process: this is the thing I am watching most carefully in my own portfolio right now. The right to a rent increase is not a given. You have to serve the notice, in the right form, within the right window. I have set up a spreadsheet tracking every tenancy start date and the first eligible Form 4A window. That is genuinely all it takes for a small portfolio. For anyone managing more than six or eight properties across different start dates, a property manager who handles Form 4A as part of the service is not a luxury, it is a loss-prevention measure.
On the Tribunal risk: I think it is real but probably manageable for most professional landlords. Scotland normalised rent referrals under the Private Residential Tenancy and the system absorbed it. My expectation is England follows the same arc. The landlords who will struggle are those serving informal increases without the statutory form. Get the paperwork right and the Tribunal is a minor inconvenience rather than a material threat.
How Property Investor App Can Help
Property Investor App publishes yield data across UK regions, so you can compare current asking rents against the Goodlord and HomeLet benchmarks for the specific area you are targeting before committing to a purchase price. If Yorkshire's 16% annual new-letting growth has you looking at terraced housing in Huddersfield, Leeds, or Bradford, PIA's regional listings show gross yield on current asking prices so you can test whether the entry price still makes sense at June 2026 rent levels. For landlords managing Section 13 cycles across existing portfolios, PIA connects you with property managers who handle Form 4A administration as part of their service, which is the practical solution to the 52-week tracking problem across multi-property holdings. And for investors looking at London re-lets where sitting tenants have been in place since 2021 or 2022, PIA's market data helps you calibrate the appropriate market-rate asking rent before starting viewings, so the Form 4A cycle begins from the right baseline on day one.
Key Takeaways
- Goodlord Rental Index, June 2026 (published 2 July 2026): England average rent for new tenancy agreements rose 6.5% year on year to £1,309 per month. In April and May 2026, the same index showed annual growth of 1.7%. The near-quadrupling in a single month reflects landlords repricing new lettings in response to Renters' Rights Act Section 13, which limits rent increases on existing tenancies to once per 52-week period using a formal Form 4A notice.
- Section 13 of the Renters' Rights Act (in force from 1 May 2026) permits landlords to raise rent on existing periodic tenancies only once per 52 weeks, via a statutory Form 4A notice. At the start of a new tenancy, the agreed rent is freely negotiated. The incentive this creates is clear: landlords are setting higher starting rents on new lettings to maximise the income locked in before the Section 13 cycle begins. Failing to serve Form 4A before the first 52-week anniversary delays the increase by a further full year, not just a few weeks.
- Yorkshire and the Humber recorded 16% annual new-tenancy rent growth in June 2026 and a 12.6% month-on-month jump from May (Goodlord). The South West and North East also recorded strong double-digit annual growth. These are regions where landlord supply exits have been material since 2022, reducing available stock against steady tenant demand and amplifying the Section 13 repricing effect.
- HomeLet Rental Index, June 2026: UK average rent across all tenancy types was £1,353 per month, up 3.4% annually. London averaged £2,181 per month, up 5.0%. Excluding London, the UK HomeLet average was £1,157. HomeLet covers existing and new tenancies; Goodlord covers new lettings only. Both are valid but measure different populations. The ONS Private Rental Index (England, May 2026) shows £1,442 for all tenancies. None of these figures is wrong. They answer different questions.
- National new-tenancy rent growth at 6.5% is running at nearly double wage growth of 3.4% and more than double May 2026 CPI of 3.0% (Goodlord comparisons). In lower-wage markets such as Doncaster, Hull, and Bradford, affordability limits how far starting rents can run before void periods increase. Investors in those sub-markets should model void risk alongside the headline regional growth rate when setting new tenancy asking rents.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did the Goodlord Rental Index show for June 2026?
The Goodlord Rental Index for June 2026, published on 2 July 2026, showed average rents on new tenancy agreements across England rose 6.5% year on year to £1,309 per month. In April and May 2026, the same index recorded annual growth of just 1.7%. Goodlord attributes the acceleration to the Renters' Rights Act Section 13 mechanism, which limits landlords to raising rent on existing tenancies once per 52 weeks via a formal Form 4A notice, creating a clear incentive to set higher starting rents at the point a new tenancy is agreed. Yorkshire and the Humber recorded the highest regional growth at 16% annually and 12.6% month on month.
How does Section 13 of the Renters' Rights Act affect rent increases in 2026?
Section 13 of the Renters' Rights Act, in force from 1 May 2026, requires landlords to use a statutory Form 4A notice to propose a rent increase on any periodic tenancy. Only one increase can be proposed per 52-week period. The tenant has the right to refer the proposed increase to the First-tier Tribunal for assessment against the open market rate. At the start of a new tenancy, the agreed rent is set freely between landlord and tenant. From that point, Section 13 applies and the first permitted increase is twelve months away at the earliest. Landlords who do not serve Form 4A within the first eligible window do not lose the right permanently, but must wait a further 52-week cycle from the date they next serve notice.
What is the difference between the Goodlord, HomeLet, and ONS rent indices?
All three measure UK private rents but use different methodologies and populations. Goodlord measures rents agreed on new tenancy contracts processed through its letting agent platform, covering only new lettings. HomeLet measures rents on new tenancies referenced through its tenant referencing service, also focused on new lettings but across a broader agent network. Both are leading indicators for new-letting market rents. The ONS Private Rental Index measures average rents paid across all existing private tenancies, including long-running contracts at older rates. For June 2026: Goodlord reports an England average of £1,309 for new lettings (6.5% annual growth); HomeLet reports a UK average of £1,353 (3.4% annual growth); ONS reports an England average of £1,442 for all tenancies (3.4% annual growth to May 2026). The Goodlord figure best captures where new tenancy pricing is landing today.
Which UK regions saw the biggest rent growth in June 2026?
According to the Goodlord Rental Index for June 2026, Yorkshire and the Humber recorded the highest annual rent growth of any English region at 16%, with a month-on-month increase of 12.6% from May. The South West and North East also recorded strong double-digit annual growth. HomeLet's June 2026 data shows London as the strongest performer across its broader dataset at 5.0% annual growth, with an average new-tenancy rent of £2,181 per month. The markets with the largest growth tend to be those where landlord supply has thinned most sharply since 2022, concentrating tenant demand on fewer available properties.
Should landlords set maximum rents when re-letting under the Renters' Rights Act?
Not automatically. The starting rent on a new tenancy is freely agreed between landlord and tenant under the Renters' Rights Act. Setting a high starting rent locks in a higher base before the Section 13 clock starts, but it also increases the risk of void periods if the asking level exceeds what the local tenant pool can pay. In lower-wage markets such as Doncaster, Hull, and Bradford, the affordability ceiling is a real constraint. The correct approach is to set the starting rent at the current local market rate, using sources such as the Goodlord Rental Index or HomeLet data for the specific area, then plan the Form 4A review at the 52-week mark and maintain good market-rate evidence for any Tribunal reference. Setting at market rate, not above it, produces the best combination of fast re-letting and sustainable income.
