Rentaroof Manchester Rental Market  Report – Q2 2026

Key Takeaways

• The average monthly rent in the city stood at £1,162 in Q2 2026, representing a 2.7% year-on-year increase compared to £1,132 in Q2 2025.
• Rental supply reached 6,798 rental properties in Q2 2026, based on archived Rentaroof.co.uk data.
• All property types recorded rental price growth year-on-year, with rooms seeing the strongest increase of 10.4% to an average monthly rent of £649.
• The average time a rental property remained on the market fell to 21 days in Q2 2026, down from 24 days a year earlier. This 12.5% decrease indicates a faster-moving rental market compared to Q2 2025.
• Rental student accommodation supply accounted for 2,243 rental properties, representing 33.0% of the city's total rental supply in Q2 2026. This highlights the continued importance of the student market within Manchester's overall rental sector.

Rental Prices in Manchester

The average monthly rent in Manchester reached £1,162 in Q2 2026, a year-on-year increase of 2.7% from £1,132 in Q2 2025. All three property types recorded growth, led by rooms at +10.4%. The district picture is more divided: three of the five districts in the dataset recorded price increases, while Withington and Rusholme declined. This 2.7% increase broadly aligns with ONS figures, which show that average private rents in Manchester rose by 3.2% year on year in May 2026, from £1,310 to £1,352.

Rental Prices by Property Type

Rooms recorded the strongest growth of any segment at +10.4%, indicating that price pressure is most pronounced at the affordable end of the market, where student and budget-conscious tenants compete for a limited pool of low-cost stock. Flats, the dominant property type by volume, rose 6.3% and remain the primary driver of the city-wide average. Houses grew 5.4% to £1,647, retaining their position as the highest-priced segment; the £998 spread between houses and rooms illustrates the breadth of Manchester's rental market. Notably, each individual property type grew faster than the overall city average of 2.7%, which indicates that the composition of rental properties shifted towards lower-priced segments compared to Q2 2025.

Average Prices by District

Hulme recorded the strongest growth of any district at +17.1%, followed by Strangeways at +13.0% and City Centre at +10.4%. The increase in Hulme was broad-based across the district rather than being driven by a small number of higher-priced rental properties. The scale of the annual rise was also amplified by the relatively low comparison base recorded in Q2 2025.

Strangeways’ growth reflects the area’s ongoing transition from its industrial and institutional past towards a more residential neighbourhood. Waterhouse Gardens, a high-specification development of 556 homes on the former Boddingtons Brewery site, began welcoming residents in late 2025, with new rental properties entering the market during Q2 2026. The arrival of this new-build stock has shifted the rental mix towards newer, higher-priced homes, contributing to the district’s 13.0% increase. City Centre combined the highest average rent of £1,356 with by far the largest rental property volume, giving its price movement particular weight in the overall Manchester average.

In contrast, Withington and Rusholme recorded declines of 5.9% and 15.9% respectively. Rusholme’s decline was visible across the wider distribution of rental properties, with Q2 2026 marking the district’s lowest price level across the six-quarter period. Around seven in ten rental properties were student accommodations, highlighting the district’s predominantly student-oriented rental market. With an average rent of £976, Rusholme was the most affordable district analysed, sitting £380 below City Centre. Overall, the divergence between rising central and northern districts and softening southern, student accommodation districts was the defining geographic pattern of the quarter.

Supply Overview

The Manchester rental market recorded a total of 6,798 rental properties in Q2 2026, representing the overall level of rental supply during the quarter.

Rental Property Distribution by District

Supply in Manchester is heavily concentrated in the centre: City Centre alone accounts for 1,125 rental properties, or 16.5% of the entire city's rental supply, more than double the volume of any other district. Together with Hulme and Strangeways, the top three districts represent 29.4% of total supply. All three are priced above the city-wide average of £1,162 and all three recorded double-digit rent growth, indicating that the areas with the deepest supply are also those experiencing the strongest demand pressure. Tenants seeking affordability will find lower price points in districts such as Rusholme, where the average rent of £976 sits £186 below the city average.

Rental student accommodations

Rental student accommodations account for 33.0% of total Manchester supply in Q2 2026, reflecting the city's large higher education population. City Centre contains the largest share of rental student accommodations, with 349 properties representing 15.6% of the city's student accommodation supply. Fallowfield (262 properties; 11.7%) and Rusholme (202 properties; 9.0%) follow, highlighting that rental student accommodations are distributed across both central and traditional student areas. Together, these three districts account for 813 of Manchester's 2,243 rental student accommodations, or 36% of the city's rental student accommodation supply, confirming that the student rental market is spread across multiple areas rather than concentrated in a single district.

Rental Property Turnover

The average time on market in Manchester decreased from 24 days in Q2 2025 to 21 days in Q2 2026, a reduction of 3 days or 12.5% year-on-year. Properties are being absorbed faster than a year ago. Combined with the 2.7% rise in average rent, this points to a market in which demand pressure has intensified relative to Q2 2025.

Rental Property Days on Market by District

The fastest-moving districts are Didsbury (11 days), Ancoats (12 days) and Chorlton-cum-Hardy (13 days); established residential neighbourhoods and city-fringe locations where properties let in under two weeks, roughly half the city average. At the other end, Rusholme records the slowest absorption at 43 days, more than double the city average. This aligns with Rusholme's position as the district with the steepest rent decline (-15.9%), indicating that demand pressure in this area is measurably lower than elsewhere in the city. Longsight (35 days) shows a similar pattern, while Ardwick (25 days) sits close to the average. Even in the slowest-moving districts, properties are absorbed within approximately six weeks, reflecting a functioning market throughout the city.

Rental Market Outlook

The Q2 2026 data presents three aligned indicators: 

• Average monthly rent increased by 2.7% year-on-year, reaching £1,162.
• Average days on market decreased by 12.5%, from 24 to 21 days, indicating faster property turnover.
• All three property types recorded year-on-year rent growth, led by rooms (+10.4%).

Together, these describe a market in which demand pressure has intensified relative to Q2 2025. Conditions have become measurably more competitive for prospective tenants than in the same period last year.

Within the overall picture, growth is concentrated in central and northern districts: Hulme (+17.1%), Strangeways (+13.0%) and City Centre (+10.4%) are driving the city-wide increase, while the southern districts of Withington (-5.9%) and Rusholme (-15.9%) are moving against the trend. Rusholme combines the steepest rent decline with the slowest absorption (43 days), marking it as the clearest area of reduced demand pressure in the dataset. The rooms segment recorded the strongest price growth at +10.4%, indicating that the affordable end of the market is tightening fastest. The student rental segment accounts for 33.0% of total rental supply, with rental student accommodations representing a significant structural component of Manchester's rental market.

Based on the current indicators, the market shows continued upward pressure in high-demand central districts, where deep supply is being absorbed at double-digit rent growth. The divergence between these areas and the softening southern districts is the pattern to monitor in the coming quarter: whether Rusholme and Longsight stabilise or continue to adjust will shape the balance of the city-wide figures. The Q2 2026 data provides the baseline against which these developments will be assessed in the Q3 report.

Methodology & About Rentaroof

Data & Methodology

This report is based on an analysis of advertised rental properties sourced from rentaroof and collected during the Q2 2026 reporting period. The analysis covers rental properties across Manchester and focuses on three key market indicators: asking rents, rental supply and time on market. Properties are classified as rented or let based on rental property advertisements that were removed from the market during the reporting period.

Rental student accommodations are identified using information contained within the original property advertisements. Rental properties are classified as student accommodations where letting agents explicitly market the property towards students, or where the description indicates student suitability through a combination of characteristics, including shared accommodation (such as rooms or shared flats) and references to nearby universities or other higher education institutions.

This report is intended for professional use by market participants, journalists and housing sector professionals. 

About Rentaroof

Rentaroof is an independent rental platform for the UK housing market. The platform gathers rental properties from reliable property websites across the country and presents them all in one place, providing one of the most complete and up-to-date overviews of available rental properties.

With smart search filters and instant alerts for new rental properties, Rentaroof helps users find suitable homes quickly and efficiently. Rentaroof is part of TreeHouse Netherlands, the company behind leading Dutch housing platforms Huurwoningen.nl and Pararius.nl.

Rentaroof Market Report by: Rohan Talwar, Market Researcher

The information and data presented in this report were accurate at the time of publication. No reliance should be placed on the contents of this report as a sole basis for decision-making. Rentaroof.co.uk and its associated parties make no representations or warranties regarding the completeness, accuracy, or suitability of the information provided, and accept no liability for any decisions made based on this content.