Renting in Colchester

Average Rent in Colchester

Rent in Colchester before the rush.

The average rent in Colchester is £1,100/mo, with 2,420 live listings across 6 portals from £400/mo. Compare rents by bedroom and area below — and get alerted the moment a new Colchester rental appears.

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Latest rentals in Colchester

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

146 new this weekUpdated today

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

Renting in Colchester

What it costs to rent in Colchester

Colchester currently has 2,420 rental properties listed across the portals we track, with a median rent of £1,100 a month. 146 new homes appeared in the past week alone. Among the houses and flats listed, roughly 40% are houses and the rest are flats.

Rents vary sharply by postcode. The most affordable outcode we track is CO15 at around £550/mo, while CO2 7WE sits nearer £2,900/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 Colchester 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

Colchester rental market at a glance

2,420

Active rentals in Colchester

£1,100/mo

Median monthly rent

Property sites we watch

Rental prices

Rent by bedrooms in Colchester

Median monthly rent, based on 2,420 active listings across 6 property sites.

Bedrooms	Median rent	Available
1 bed	£850/mo	615
2 bed	£1,200/mo	872
3 bed	£1,500/mo	312
4+ bed	£1,850/mo	370
Room	£628/mo	193

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

Rent trend · ONS PIPR

How Colchester rents have moved

Office for National Statistics Price Index of Private Rents — official monthly average rent across all tenures in Colchester. Latest: £1,216/mo (Mar 26, +5.9% YoY).

Latest

£1,216

Mar 26

Annual

+5.9%

vs last year

5-yr ago

£913

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 Colchester pay goes on rent?

Renters in Colchester spend an estimated 46% of the local median gross salary on rent — based on the ONS Price Index of Private Rents and ASHE Table 8 (2025).

Median rent

£1,216/mo

£14,592/yr

Median pay

£31,589/yr

gross, ASHE 2025

Rent burden

46%

Stretched — above the 30% rent-burden threshold.

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 Colchester

Most Colchester homes sit in Band B. The weighted average works out close to Band C–D across 85,980 properties on the council-tax list.

Modal band

most common band

Mean band

3.19

≈ Band C–D

Stock

86k

85,980 properties

A
11%9,570
B
27%22,990
C
25%21,110
D
19%16,080
E
11%9,240
F
5%4,240
G
3%2,580
H
0%160

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 Colchester

63% of Colchester premises can already get full-fibre and 83% can get gigabit speeds — Ofcom Connected Nations residential coverage, July 2025.

Full fibre

63%

FTTP-ready premises

Gigabit

83%

≥1Gbit/s available

Superfast

98%

≥30Mbit/s available

Mean speed

440 Mbit/s

bucket-weighted estimate

Full fibre (FTTP)
63%
Gigabit-capable
83%
Superfast (≥30 Mbit/s)
98%

Source: Ofcom Connected Nations residential coverage by Local Authority (Colchester), July 2025, covering 85,948 premises. Mean download speed is estimated from Ofcom speed-bucket midpoints.

Energy efficiency · DESNZ EPC

EPC ratings for Colchester homes

55% of Colchester 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

73k

73,154 EPCs

A
1%546
B
17%12,250
C
37%27,150
D
32%23,581
E
10%7,524
F
2%1,707
G
1%396

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

Schools · GIAS · DfE

State-funded schools near Colchester

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

1
The Sixth Form College Colchester
16 plus · Academy 16-19 converter · CO1 1SN
0.21 mi
2
St John's Green Primary School
Primary · Community school · CO2 7HE
0.26 mi
3
St Thomas More's Catholic Primary School, Colchester
Primary · Academy converter · CO1 2QB
0.38 mi
4
North Primary School and Nursery
Primary · Community school · CO1 1RP
0.47 mi
5
St Helena School
Secondary · Academy converter · CO3 3LE
0.49 mi

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

Property types

What’s on offer in Colchester

Flats & apartments

987

53% of listings

Houses

669

36% of listings

Rooms

193

10% of listings

Bungalows

1% of listings

Property mix · houses

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

Terraced houses make up 48% of the 683 houses currently advertised in Colchester.

Terraced
48%328
Semi-detached
21%145
Other house
18%121
Detached
11%76
Bungalow
2%13

Rent by postcode

Where Colchester rent is highest and lowest

Median monthly rent grouped by outcode across 2,057 live listings in 24 outcodes. Outcodes with fewer than 3 listings are skipped to avoid skew from a single luxury rental.

Most expensive in Colchester

1CO2 7WE£2,900/mo3 rentals
2CO6£1,600/mo11 rentals
3C03£1,600/mo3 rentals

Cheapest in Colchester

1CO15£550/mo11 rentals
2CO7£600/mo14 rentals
3CO10£600/mo9 rentals

Features · Colchester

Garden, parking, and floor area in Colchester

Live signal across 2,420 Colchester rentals scraped from six UK portals. Coverage varies by portal — figures below show the share of listings whose advertiser surfaces the feature.

Garden

79%

of 495 Colchester listings advertise a garden, patio, or terrace.

Parking

91%

of 673 Colchester listings include parking, a driveway, or a garage.

Area safety

Safety in Colchester

Lower Crime Area

Based on the latest police data (July 2026), Colchester has a lower crime rate compared to other UK cities. Across 23 of 23 postcode districts analysed, the median was 43 reported crimes per area. The most common category in Colchester is Anti-social behaviour, accounting for 0% of all incidents.

Crime overview

43 crimes per area (median)
23 of 23 postcode districts covered
Data: July 2026

Most reported

Anti-social behaviour
0% of incidents

Colchester 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 Colchester

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.

Stanway has the lowest crime count of the top 5 suburbs in Colchester.

Stanway
Safer area
Most common: Violent crime (39) · pop. ~11,000
11
per 1k
Mile End
Typical for city
Most common: Violent crime (72) · pop. ~9,000
17
per 1k
Highwoods
Typical for city
Most common: Violent crime (59) · pop. ~10,000
14
per 1k
Shrub End
Higher crime
Most common: Violent crime (112) · pop. ~9,000
33
per 1k
Lexden
Typical for city
Most common: Violent crime (47) · pop. ~6,000
19
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

Colchester listings by portal

We watch 6 property sites for rentals in Colchester.

Rightmove

1351

OpenRent

542

SpareRoom

193

PrimeLocation

151

OnTheMarket

142

Leaders

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Frequently asked

Renting in Colchester — your questions answered

What is the average rent in Colchester?

The median rent in Colchester is £1100/month based on 2420 active listings across 6 property portals (2026-07).

How many rental properties are available in Colchester?

There are currently 2420 rental properties available in Colchester, with 146 new listings added in the last 7 days.

Is Colchester safe for renters?

Colchester has a lower crime rate compared to other UK cities, with a median of 43 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 Colchester?

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

Cities to rent in nearby

Areas to rent near Colchester

More places renters search alongside Colchester. 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 Colchester compares with the UK’s largest rental markets — median rents, area data and live alerts for each.

Renting guides

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

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