Rents were up 4.6 per cent on a year before, compared with a 3.8 per cent rise in June, according to The Guardian.
Central London saw by far the biggest increase in the cost of newly rented properties at 6.8 per cent, but there were also strong rises in Scotland and the east of England.
It now costs an average £2,583 a month to take on a rented property in central London, compared with £663 in the north of England, the cheapest place to rent in the UK, according to Countrywide, which analysed more than 75,000 properties in England, Scotland and Wales.
London has become one of the most expensive cities in the world to rent a home, prompting politicians to call for New York-style controlson landlords.
In 18 of London’s 33 boroughs, the median rent for a one-bedroom flat is more than £1,000 a month, according to statistics from the government agency that values properties for the purposes of council tax in England and Wales.
The Valuation Office Agency figures show rents for a one-bedroom flat in Greenwich, south-east London, have risen by 30 per cent over five years, from £750 a month to £975. In Islington, north London, a one-bedroom flat has gone up by 20 per cent over the same period, from £1,213 to £1,452.
