Renting in Reading

Average Rent in Reading

Rent in Reading before the rush.

The average rent in Reading is £1,300/mo, with 6,040 live listings across 5 portals from £400/mo. Compare rents by bedroom and area below — and get alerted the moment a new Reading rental appears.

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Latest rentals in Reading

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

268 new this weekUpdated today

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

Renting in Reading

What it costs to rent in Reading

Reading currently has 6,040 rental properties listed across the portals we track, with a median rent of £1,300 a month. 268 new homes appeared in the past week alone. Among the houses and flats listed, roughly 30% are houses and the rest are flats.

Rents vary sharply by postcode. The most affordable outcode we track is RG26 at around £475/mo, while RG6 1DL sits nearer £2,985/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 Reading 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

Reading rental market at a glance

6,040

Active rentals in Reading

£1,300/mo

Median monthly rent

Property sites we watch

Rental prices

Rent by bedrooms in Reading

Median monthly rent, based on 6,040 active listings across 5 property sites.

Bedrooms	Median rent	Available
1 bed	£1,100/mo	2120
2 bed	£1,500/mo	1639
3 bed	£1,800/mo	544
4+ bed	£2,750/mo	784
Room	£700/mo	528

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

Rent trend · ONS PIPR

How Reading rents have moved

Office for National Statistics Price Index of Private Rents — official monthly average rent across all tenures in Reading. Latest: £1,579/mo (Mar 26, +3.4% YoY).

Latest

£1,579

Mar 26

Annual

+3.4%

vs last year

5-yr ago

£1,178

Apr 21

Total change

+34%

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 Reading pay goes on rent?

Renters in Reading spend an estimated 53% of the local median gross salary on rent — based on the ONS Price Index of Private Rents and ASHE Table 8 (2025).

Median rent

£1,579/mo

£18,948/yr

Median pay

£35,454/yr

gross, ASHE 2025

Rent burden

53%

Expensive — half of local median pay before tax.

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 Reading

Most Reading homes sit in Band C. The weighted average works out close to Band C–D across 76,570 properties on the council-tax list.

Modal band

most common band

Mean band

3.16

≈ Band C–D

Stock

77k

76,570 properties

A
9%7,270
B
19%14,930
C
41%31,100
D
16%12,010
E
8%5,900
F
4%3,360
G
2%1,900
H
0%100

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 Reading

95% of Reading premises can already get full-fibre and 96% can get gigabit speeds — Ofcom Connected Nations residential coverage, July 2025.

Full fibre

95%

FTTP-ready premises

Gigabit

96%

≥1Gbit/s available

Superfast

100%

≥30Mbit/s available

Mean speed

489 Mbit/s

bucket-weighted estimate

Full fibre (FTTP)
95%
Gigabit-capable
96%
Superfast (≥30 Mbit/s)
100%

Source: Ofcom Connected Nations residential coverage by Local Authority (Reading), July 2025, covering 75,675 premises. Mean download speed is estimated from Ofcom speed-bucket midpoints.

Energy efficiency · DESNZ EPC

EPC ratings for Reading homes

50% of Reading 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

50%

good energy-efficiency stock

Bands D–G

50%

below the proposed 2030 floor

Certificates

69k

68,554 EPCs

A
0%221
B
15%10,099
C
35%23,876
D
37%25,184
E
11%7,535
F
2%1,240
G
1%399

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

Schools · GIAS · DfE

State-funded schools near Reading

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

1
Katesgrove Primary School
Primary · Community school · RG1 2NL
0.31 mi
2
Coley Primary School
Primary · Community school · RG1 6AZ
0.32 mi
3
Kendrick School
Secondary · Academy converter · RG1 5BN
0.44 mi
4
Civitas Academy
Primary · Academy sponsor led · RG1 7HL
0.50 mi
5
E P Collier Primary School
Primary · Community school · RG1 8DZ
0.60 mi

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

Property types

What’s on offer in Reading

Flats & apartments

3002

63% of listings

Houses

1261

26% of listings

Rooms

528

11% of listings

Bungalows

0% of listings

Property mix · houses

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

Terraced houses make up 63% of the 1,270 houses currently advertised in Reading.

Terraced
63%794
Semi-detached
20%254
Detached
9%120
Other house
7%93
Bungalow
1%9

Rent by postcode

Where Reading rent is highest and lowest

Median monthly rent grouped by outcode across 5,213 live listings in 39 outcodes. Outcodes with fewer than 3 listings are skipped to avoid skew from a single luxury rental.

Most expensive in Reading

1RG6 1DL£2,985/mo6 rentals
2RG1 5LZ£2,735/mo4 rentals
3TW3£2,250/mo3 rentals

Cheapest in Reading

1RG26£475/mo14 rentals
2RG10£550/mo3 rentals
3RG2 0ET£585/mo12 rentals

Features · Reading

Garden, parking, and floor area in Reading

Live signal across 6,040 Reading rentals scraped from six UK portals. Coverage varies by portal — figures below show the share of listings whose advertiser surfaces the feature.

Garden

81%

of 1,148 Reading listings advertise a garden, patio, or terrace.

Parking

82%

of 2,051 Reading listings include parking, a driveway, or a garage.

Floor area · £/sqft

£2.56 /sqft

Median 728 sqft across 702 Reading listings that publish floor area.

Area safety

Safety in Reading

Lower Crime Area

Based on the latest police data (July 2026), Reading has a lower crime rate compared to other UK cities. Across 45 of 45 postcode districts analysed, the median was 72 reported crimes per area. The most common category in Reading is Anti-social behaviour, accounting for 0% of all incidents.

Crime overview

72 crimes per area (median)
45 of 45 postcode districts covered
Data: July 2026

Most reported

Anti-social behaviour
0% of incidents

Reading 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 Reading

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.

Woodley has the lowest crime count of the top 5 suburbs in Reading.

Caversham
Higher crime
Most common: Shoplifting (161) · pop. ~21,000
26
per 1k
Earley
Typical for city
Most common: Violent crime (100) · pop. ~33,000
8.1
per 1k
Tilehurst
Typical for city
Most common: Violent crime (91) · pop. ~22,000
9.4
per 1k
Woodley
Safer area
Most common: Violent crime (45) · pop. ~32,000
3.3
per 1k
Whitley
Higher crime
Most common: Violent crime (113) · pop. ~20,000
16
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

Reading listings by portal

We watch 5 property sites for rentals in Reading.

Rightmove

3518

OpenRent

1079

SpareRoom

528

OnTheMarket

470

PrimeLocation

445

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Frequently asked

Renting in Reading — your questions answered

What is the average rent in Reading?

The median rent in Reading is £1300/month based on 6040 active listings across 5 property portals (2026-07).

How many rental properties are available in Reading?

There are currently 6040 rental properties available in Reading, with 268 new listings added in the last 7 days.

Is Reading safe for renters?

Reading has a lower crime rate compared to other UK cities, with a median of 72 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 Reading?

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

Cities to rent in nearby

Areas to rent near Reading

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

Renting guides

Search smarter than the Reading crowd

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

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