Renting in Watford

Average Rent in Watford: £1,550/mo

Rent in Watford before the rush.

Median asking rent across 2,972 live Watford listings on 5 portals from £430/mo, broken down by property size below — plus how rents have moved, where they are highest and lowest, and what landed on the market this week.

Median asking rent

£1,550 /month

2,972 live listings · 5 portals

Median monthly rent in Watford by property size
Size	Median rent	Listings
Studio	£950/mo	173
1 bed	£1,250/mo	994
2 bed	£1,750/mo	838
3 bed	£2,100/mo	338
4+ bed	£2,800/mo	251
Room (house share)	£800/mo	378

Asking rents from live listings on Rightmove, OnTheMarket, OpenRent, PrimeLocation, SpareRoom and Leaders · Updated 13 September 2026. Weekly prices normalised to monthly.

Where in Watford are you looking?

Free to sign up · no card needed · upgrade when you’re ready

Renting in Watford

What it costs to rent in Watford

Watford currently has 2,972 rental properties listed across the portals we track, with a median rent of £1,550 a month. 135 new homes appeared in the past week alone. Among the houses and flats listed, roughly 27% are houses and the rest are flats.

Rents vary sharply by postcode. The most affordable outcode we track is WD24 at around £1,500/mo, while WD3 sits nearer £2,000/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 Watford 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.

Rent by property size

Average rent in Watford by bedrooms

Median monthly asking rent for each property size, from 2,972 live listings across 5 property sites (September 2026).

Average studio rent in Watford

£950/mo

The median asking rent for a studio in Watford is £950 a month, 39% below the city-wide median of £1,550, based on 173 studios currently on the market.

Average rent for a 1-bed flat in Watford

£1,250/mo

The median asking rent for a 1-bed home in Watford is £1,250 a month, 19% below the city-wide median of £1,550, based on 994 listings currently on the market.

Average rent for a 2-bed flat or house in Watford

£1,750/mo

The median asking rent for a 2-bed home in Watford is £1,750 a month, 13% above the city-wide median of £1,550, based on 838 listings currently on the market.

Average rent for a 3-bed house in Watford

£2,100/mo

The median asking rent for a 3-bed home in Watford is £2,100 a month, 35% above the city-wide median of £1,550, based on 338 listings currently on the market.

Average rent for a 4-bed house in Watford

£2,800/mo

The median asking rent for a four-bedroom-plus home in Watford is £2,800 a month, 81% above the city-wide median of £1,550, based on 251 listings currently on the market.

Average room rent in Watford

£800/mo

The median asking rent for a room in a Watford house share is £800 a month, 48% below the city-wide median of £1,550, based on 378 rooms currently listed, mostly on SpareRoom and OpenRent.

Medians exclude prices that fail our junk-listing floor. Room rents are per room, not per property.

Free monthly digest

Watch Watford rents without checking every week

One email a month: what the median rent did, which postcodes moved, and how much came to market. Built from live listings across six UK property sites. No card, no account, unsubscribe anytime.

We’ll email you once to confirm. See our privacy policy.

Rent trend · ONS PIPR

How Watford rents have moved

Office for National Statistics Price Index of Private Rents — official monthly average rent across all tenures in Watford. Latest: £1,823/mo (Jul 26, +3.4% YoY).

Latest

£1,823

Jul 26

Annual

+3.4%

vs last year

5-yr ago

£1,387

Aug 21

Total change

+31%

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 Watford pay goes on rent?

Renters in Watford spend an estimated 59% of the local median gross salary on rent — based on the ONS Price Index of Private Rents and ASHE Table 8 (2025).

Median rent

£1,823/mo

£21,876/yr

Median pay

£37,172/yr

gross, ASHE 2025

Rent burden

59%

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.

Property types

What’s on offer in Watford

Flats & apartments

1544

62% of listings

Houses

563

23% of listings

Rooms

378

15% of listings

Bungalows

1% of listings

Property mix · houses

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

Terraced houses make up 46% of the 580 houses currently advertised in Watford.

Terraced
46%264
Other house
26%148
Semi-detached
17%101
Detached
9%50
Bungalow
3%17

Rent by postcode

Where Watford rent is highest and lowest

Median monthly rent grouped by outcode across 1,963 live listings in 10 outcodes. Outcodes with fewer than 3 listings are skipped to avoid skew from a single luxury rental.

Most expensive in Watford

1WD3£2,000/mo12 rentals
2WD19£1,750/mo176 rentals
3WD99£1,650/mo6 rentals

Cheapest in Watford

1WD24£1,500/mo353 rentals
2WD17£1,500/mo506 rentals
3WD18£1,500/mo573 rentals

Features · Watford

Garden, parking, and floor area in Watford

Live signal across 2,972 Watford rentals scraped from six UK portals. Coverage varies by portal — figures below show the share of listings whose advertiser surfaces the feature.

Garden

73%

of 733 Watford listings advertise a garden, patio, or terrace.

Parking

78%

of 932 Watford listings include parking, a driveway, or a garage.

Floor area · £/sqft

£2.57 /sqft

Median 600 sqft across 381 Watford listings that publish floor area.

Live from the portals

New rentals in Watford this week

135 homes came onto the Watford rental market in the last 7 days across Rightmove, OnTheMarket, OpenRent, PrimeLocation, SpareRoom and Leaders. The freshest are below.

135 new this weekUpdated today

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

How it works

Your first Watford alert in under a minute

Four steps between you and never missing a good one in Watford.

Tell us where home is

Pop in your budget, bed count and favourite corners of Watford. A minute, tops.

We'll watch the portals

Six major sites, checked every couple of minutes. Yes, on Sundays too.

Alert lands in your inbox

The moment a match appears, email arrives before most people open the app.

You get there first

Message the agent while the listing is still warm.

Start here

Council tax · VOA 2024

Council tax bands across Watford

Most Watford homes sit in Band C. The weighted average works out close to Band C–D across 42,650 properties on the council-tax list.

Modal band

most common band

Mean band

3.72

≈ Band C–D

Stock

43k

42,650 properties

A
1%510
B
10%4,460
C
37%15,650
D
33%14,010
E
9%3,810
F
5%2,200
G
5%1,930
H
0%80

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 Watford

85% of Watford premises can already get full-fibre and 94% can get gigabit speeds — Ofcom Connected Nations residential coverage, July 2025.

Full fibre

85%

FTTP-ready premises

Gigabit

94%

≥1Gbit/s available

Superfast

100%

≥30Mbit/s available

Mean speed

485 Mbit/s

bucket-weighted estimate

Full fibre (FTTP)
85%
Gigabit-capable
94%
Superfast (≥30 Mbit/s)
100%

Source: Ofcom Connected Nations residential coverage by Local Authority (Watford), July 2025, covering 43,072 premises. Mean download speed is estimated from Ofcom speed-bucket midpoints.

Energy efficiency · DESNZ EPC

EPC ratings for Watford homes

50% of Watford 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

36k

36,180 EPCs

A
0%42
B
17%6,057
C
33%12,104
D
37%13,450
E
10%3,796
F
2%568
G
0%163

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

Schools · GIAS · DfE

State-funded schools near Watford

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

1
Central Primary School
Primary · Community school · WD17 2LX
0.18 mi
2
Watford Grammar School for Girls
Secondary · Academy converter · WD18 0AE
0.25 mi
3
Watford St John's Church of England Primary School
Primary · Free schools · WD17 1JJ
0.26 mi
4
Watford Field School (Infant & Nursery)
Primary · Community school · WD18 0WF
0.31 mi
5
Chater Junior School
Primary · Community school · WD18 0WN
0.32 mi

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

Area safety

Safety in Watford

Higher Crime Area

Based on the latest police data (September 2026), Watford has a higher crime rate compared to other UK cities. Across 16 of 16 postcode districts analysed, the median was 139 reported crimes per area. The most common category in Watford is Anti-social behaviour, accounting for 0% of all incidents.

Crime overview

139 crimes per area (median)
16 of 16 postcode districts covered
Data: September 2026

Most reported

Anti-social behaviour
0% of incidents

Watford’s overall figures sit above the national median, but crime varies a lot by neighbourhood. Dwellio alerts include the area’s data so you can pick the right street.

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

Area breakdown

Safety by suburb in Watford

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

Bushey has the lowest crime count of the top 5 suburbs in Watford.

Bushey
Safer area
Most common: Violent crime (61) · pop. ~28,000
5.7
per 1k
Oxhey
Safer area
Most common: Violent crime (96) · pop. ~14,000
20
per 1k
Garston
Typical for city
Most common: Violent crime (100) · pop. ~10,000
35
per 1k
Holywell
Higher crime
Most common: Violent crime (199) · pop. ~7,000
88
per 1k
Cassiobury
Higher crime
Most common: Violent crime (218) · pop. ~6,000
122
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

Watford listings by portal

We watch 5 property sites for rentals in Watford.

Rightmove

1502

OpenRent

649

OnTheMarket

438

SpareRoom

378

Leaders

Start getting alerts

Get Watford alerts first

Free to sign up — no card needed. We’ll email the moment a matching rental goes live in Watford.

Free to start — no card needed

Dwellio

£9.99/mo

Alerts that land before the rush.

Within 15 minutes

Up to 10 search areas
Alerts within 15 minutes of listing
Unlimited email alerts
Price-drop alerts
Back-on-market alerts
"Days on market" badge
Priority support from a human

No card to sign up · 7-day Pro trial when you upgrade · cancel anytime

Frequently asked

Renting in Watford — your questions answered

How much is rent in Watford?

The average (median) asking rent in Watford is £1,550 a month — a 1-bed is £1,250 and a 2-bed £1,750, based on 2,972 live listings across 5 property portals in Sept 2026.

What is the average studio rent in Watford?

The median asking rent for a studio in Watford is £950 a month, 39% below the city-wide median of £1,550, based on 173 studios currently on the market.

What is the average rent for a 1-bed flat in Watford?

The median asking rent for a 1-bed home in Watford is £1,250 a month, 19% below the city-wide median of £1,550, based on 994 listings currently on the market.

What is the average rent for a 2-bed flat or house in Watford?

The median asking rent for a 2-bed home in Watford is £1,750 a month, 13% above the city-wide median of £1,550, based on 838 listings currently on the market.

What is the average rent for a 3-bed house in Watford?

The median asking rent for a 3-bed home in Watford is £2,100 a month, 35% above the city-wide median of £1,550, based on 338 listings currently on the market.

What is the average rent for a 4-bed house in Watford?

The median asking rent for a four-bedroom-plus home in Watford is £2,800 a month, 81% above the city-wide median of £1,550, based on 251 listings currently on the market.

What is the average room rent in Watford?

The median asking rent for a room in a Watford house share is £800 a month, 48% below the city-wide median of £1,550, based on 378 rooms currently listed, mostly on SpareRoom and OpenRent.

How many rental properties are available in Watford?

There are currently 2,972 rental properties available in Watford, with 135 new listings added in the last 7 days.

Is Watford safe for renters?

Watford has a higher crime rate compared to other UK cities, with a median of 139 reported crimes per postcode area (September 2026). The most common category is Anti-social behaviour. Data from data.police.uk.

What is the most common crime in Watford?

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

Across East of England

Average rent across East of England

How Watford compares with the other 20 places we track in East of England — median asking rent from live listings, updated September 2026.

Every city, every region, one table: the UK rental index.

Compare across the UK

Average rent in major UK cities

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

Renting guides

Search smarter than the Watford crowd

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

Start getting Watford alerts today

Free to sign up. No card needed. Cancel anytime.

Start free

Free to sign up
No card needed
Cancel anytime
Setup in 60 seconds