Renting in Bedford

Average Rent in Bedford

Rent in Bedford before the rush.

The average rent in Bedford is £1,145/mo, with 1,931 live listings across 6 portals from £400/mo. Compare rents by bedroom and area below — and get alerted the moment a new Bedford rental appears.

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Latest rentals in Bedford

The freshest listings we picked up across Rightmove, OnTheMarket, OpenRent, PrimeLocation, SpareRoom and Leaders.

75 new this weekUpdated today

Listings refresh as our scraper picks up new properties for Bedford. Click through to the source portal to enquire.

Renting in Bedford

What it costs to rent in Bedford

Bedford currently has 1,931 rental properties listed across the portals we track, with a median rent of £1,145 a month. 75 new homes appeared in the past week alone. Among the houses and flats listed, roughly 43% are houses and the rest are flats.

Rents vary sharply by postcode. The most affordable outcode we track is WN2 at around £375/mo, while MK10 sits nearer £2,200/mo. For a wider view of where the UK’s cheapest rents are, see our guide to the cheapest cities to rent in the UK.

Dwellio watches Rightmove, OnTheMarket, OpenRent, PrimeLocation, SpareRoom and Leaders for Bedford around the clock — so a new listing reaches your inbox before most renters have refreshed the app. Here’s how our rental alerts work. Looking further afield? You can browse rentals in every UK city.

How it works

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Market snapshot

Bedford rental market at a glance

1,931

Active rentals in Bedford

£1,145/mo

Median monthly rent

Property sites we watch

Rental prices

Rent by bedrooms in Bedford

Median monthly rent, based on 1,931 active listings across 6 property sites.

Bedrooms	Median rent	Available
1 bed	£850/mo	616
2 bed	£1,200/mo	543
3 bed	£1,500/mo	386
4+ bed	£2,100/mo	232
Room	£525/mo	89

Updated July 2026. Prices normalised to monthly where weekly was listed.

Rent trend · ONS PIPR

How Bedford rents have moved

Office for National Statistics Price Index of Private Rents — official monthly average rent across all tenures in Bedford. Latest: £1,163/mo (Mar 26, +4.3% YoY).

Latest

£1,163

Mar 26

Annual

+4.3%

vs last year

5-yr ago

£875

Apr 21

Total change

+33%

since 2021

Source: Office for National Statistics · Price Index of Private Rents (PIPR). Updated monthly with a ~2-month lag. ONS uses Broad Rental Market Areas in Scotland — figures may aggregate beyond the city itself.

Affordability · ONS ASHE

What share of Bedford pay goes on rent?

Renters in Bedford spend an estimated 39% of the local median gross salary on rent — based on the ONS Price Index of Private Rents and ASHE Table 8 (2025).

Median rent

£1,163/mo

£13,956/yr

Median pay

£35,987/yr

gross, ASHE 2025

Rent burden

39%

Affordable for most renters.

0%30% threshold80%

Sources: Office for National Statistics — Price Index of Private Rents (latest month) and Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings Table 8.7a (median annual gross pay, place of residence). The 30% line is the conventional rent-burden threshold above which housing costs are considered to crowd out other essentials.

Council tax · VOA 2024

Council tax bands across Bedford

Most Bedford homes sit in Band C. The weighted average works out close to Band C–D across 79,820 properties on the council-tax list.

Modal band

most common band

Mean band

3.28

≈ Band C–D

Stock

80k

79,820 properties

A
13%10,260
B
24%18,940
C
25%20,050
D
15%12,370
E
11%8,920
F
7%5,760
G
4%3,280
H
0%250

Source: HM Valuation Office Agency — Council Tax Stock of Properties (CTSOP1.0), extract dated 31 March 2024. Covers England and Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland use separate band schemes and aren't included.

Broadband · Ofcom Connected Nations

Broadband coverage across Bedford

70% of Bedford premises can already get full-fibre and 86% can get gigabit speeds — Ofcom Connected Nations residential coverage, July 2025.

Full fibre

70%

FTTP-ready premises

Gigabit

86%

≥1Gbit/s available

Superfast

99%

≥30Mbit/s available

Mean speed

454 Mbit/s

bucket-weighted estimate

Full fibre (FTTP)
70%
Gigabit-capable
86%
Superfast (≥30 Mbit/s)
99%

Source: Ofcom Connected Nations residential coverage by Local Authority (Bedford), July 2025, covering 80,044 premises. Mean download speed is estimated from Ofcom speed-bucket midpoints.

Energy efficiency · DESNZ EPC

EPC ratings for Bedford homes

55% of Bedford homes hold a current EPC in bands A–C — the bands that meet the proposed 2030 minimum energy-efficiency standard for rented stock.

Bands A–C

55%

good energy-efficiency stock

Bands D–G

45%

below the proposed 2030 floor

Certificates

69k

69,363 EPCs

A
1%463
B
18%12,625
C
36%25,311
D
31%21,197
E
11%7,711
F
2%1,647
G
1%409

Source: DESNZ Energy Performance of Buildings register (replacement for opendatacommunities.org), domestic certificates filed under Bedford. Covers England and Wales — Scottish EPCs are held in a separate Scottish register and aren't included.

Schools · GIAS · DfE

State-funded schools near Bedford

12 open state-funded schools sit within one mile of the Bedford centroid. The five closest:

1
Priory Primary School
Primary · Foundation school · MK40 1JD
0.26 mi
2
Bedford Free School
Secondary · Free schools · MK42 9AD
0.31 mi
3
Livingstone Primary School
Primary · Foundation school · MK41 7LG
0.50 mi
4
Castle Newnham School
Primary · Academy converter · MK40 3EP
0.72 mi
5
Peter Pan Nursery School
Nursery · Local authority nursery school · MK42 9DR
0.74 mi

Source: DfE Get Information About Schools (state-funded extract). Distances are straight-line from each school's postcode to the Bedford centroid. Ofsted ratings were removed from GIAS in January 2025 and aren't available here.

Property types

What’s on offer in Bedford

Flats & apartments

720

53% of listings

Houses

543

40% of listings

Rooms

6% of listings

Bungalows

1% of listings

Property mix · houses

Houses to rent in Bedford — what's on the market

Terraced houses make up 40% of the 562 houses currently advertised in Bedford.

Terraced
40%225
Semi-detached
27%151
Detached
16%88
Other house
14%79
Bungalow
3%19

Rent by postcode

Where Bedford rent is highest and lowest

Median monthly rent grouped by outcode across 1,491 live listings in 37 outcodes. Outcodes with fewer than 3 listings are skipped to avoid skew from a single luxury rental.

Most expensive in Bedford

1MK10£2,200/mo19 rentals
2MK17£1,850/mo10 rentals
3MK43£1,750/mo9 rentals

Cheapest in Bedford

1WN2£375/mo9 rentals
2WN8£400/mo5 rentals
3WN5£450/mo27 rentals

Features · Bedford

Garden, parking, and floor area in Bedford

Live signal across 1,931 Bedford rentals scraped from six UK portals. Coverage varies by portal — figures below show the share of listings whose advertiser surfaces the feature.

Garden

76%

of 342 Bedford listings advertise a garden, patio, or terrace.

Parking

86%

of 442 Bedford listings include parking, a driveway, or a garage.

Area safety

Safety in Bedford

Lower Crime Area

Based on the latest police data (July 2026), Bedford has a lower crime rate compared to other UK cities. Across 96 of 96 postcode districts analysed, the median was 1 reported crimes per area. The most common category in Bedford is Anti-social behaviour, accounting for 0% of all incidents.

Crime overview

1 crimes per area (median)
96 of 96 postcode districts covered
Data: July 2026

Most reported

Anti-social behaviour
0% of incidents

Bedford ranks well for renters concerned about neighbourhood safety. Every Dwellio alert includes the area’s crime data so you can compare at a glance.

Data from data.police.uk, updated monthly. Contains public-sector information licensed under OGL v3.0.

Area breakdown

Safety by suburb in Bedford

Street-level crime counts from data.police.uk for May 2026, covering a ~1 mile radius around each suburb centre. Figures are normalised per 1,000 residents so you can compare neighbourhoods fairly.

Kempston has the lowest crime count of the top 5 suburbs in Bedford.

Kempston
Safer area
Most common: Violent crime (80) · pop. ~20,000
10
per 1k
Queens Park
Higher crime
Most common: Violent crime (177) · pop. ~7,000
70
per 1k
Brickhill
Safer area
Most common: Violent crime (26) · pop. ~8,000
11
per 1k
Goldington
Typical for city
Most common: Violent crime (92) · pop. ~11,000
21
per 1k
Elstow
Higher crime
Most common: Violent crime (82) · pop. ~3,000
91
per 1k

Suburbs shown are representative populated areas; figures reflect street-level incidents within ~1 mile of each centre. Data from data.police.uk. Contains public-sector information licensed under OGL v3.0.

Where we search

Bedford listings by portal

We watch 6 property sites for rentals in Bedford.

Rightmove

735

OpenRent

407

OnTheMarket

382

PrimeLocation

317

SpareRoom

Leaders

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Frequently asked

Renting in Bedford — your questions answered

What is the average rent in Bedford?

The median rent in Bedford is £1145/month based on 1931 active listings across 6 property portals (2026-07).

How many rental properties are available in Bedford?

There are currently 1931 rental properties available in Bedford, with 75 new listings added in the last 7 days.

Is Bedford safe for renters?

Bedford has a lower crime rate compared to other UK cities, with a median of 1 reported crimes per postcode area (July 2026). The most common category is Anti-social behaviour. Data from data.police.uk.

What is the most common crime in Bedford?

The most commonly reported crime category in Bedford is Anti-social behaviour, based on data.police.uk records for July 2026.

Cities to rent in nearby

Areas to rent near Bedford

More places renters search alongside Bedford. We monitor every UK portal in each city — set alerts for as many as you like.

Compare across the UK

Average rent in major UK cities

See how Bedford compares with the UK’s largest rental markets — median rents, area data and live alerts for each.

Renting guides

Search smarter than the Bedford crowd

Guides on covering every portal and reaching new Bedford listings first.

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