If you’ve ever so much as dipped your toe in the murky waters of London’s rental market, you’ll be well aware that it’s neither for the faint of heart or the weak of bank balance. With the average price of a room having sky-rocketed to £985 a month (and – before you ask – that doesn’t include bills); I’m perhaps starting to regret spending quite such a large proportion of my income on flights and flat whites when I should have been – well… actually saving for my future. But what’s done is done, I suppose. And look, it’s not all doom and gloom, dear house-hunting Londoners. Yes, it is pretty darn expensive to rent a room in London, but it turns out that there are still some corners of the capital that aren’t as eye-watering expensive as all of the others – and we’re here to give you a gentle nudge in their direction.
The flat-share aficionados over at SpareRoom have trawled through the depths of the internet so that we don’t have to. Using their data (which is updated quarterly), they’ve ranked each and every postcode in London based on the monthly average cost to rent a room there – and have collated their findings into a handy list of the 10 cheapest places to rent a room in the capital city. Aren’t they lovely?
The data has revealed that the most affordable postcode to rent a room in London is E12. Over in Manor Park, the average monthly cost for a room is just £741. East Ham is the second most budget-friendly area to rent a room, with a monthly average of £755. And following closely in third place is Lower Edmonton, where a room will set you back on average £760 a month.
East and south-east London dominate the cheap and cheerful charts, with 7 of the top 10 postcodes starting with an E of an SE. The findings also revealed that there are now just 6 postcodes in the entirety of the city where it costs (on average) less than £800 a month to rent a room. Blimey.
The cheapest areas to rent a room in London (as of January 2026)
- Manor Park (E12) – £741 monthly average
- East Ham (E6) – £755 monthly average
- Lower Edmonton (N9) – £760 monthly average
- Chingford (E4) – £768 monthly average
- Forest Gate (E7) – £781 monthly average
- Upper Edmonton (N18) – £791 monthly average
- Plaistow (E13) – £801 monthly average
- Eltham (SE9) – £807 monthly average
- Abbey Wood (SE2) – £814 monthly average
- Palmers Green (N13) – £824 monthly average
You can peruse SpareRoom’s full findings here.
