Last reviewed
On £41,700 you take home about £2,795 a month. An average one-bed costs £1,217 a month in Havering and £2,640 in Kensington and Chelsea. After council tax and a Travelcard into central London, that's £1,147 left in Havering and £121 short in Kensington and Chelsea. The London average of £1,760 hides that gap.
Type your salary or choose your job, then pick your borough and your home. The table shows all 32 boroughs, each with the Travelcard from its usual zone.
£1,217 to £2,640
One-bed rent across 32 boroughs
ONS average, August 2026.
7 of 32
Boroughs within 10% of the London average
The average one-bed is £1,760 a month.
£171.70 to £313.40
Monthly Travelcard into zone 1
From zones 1 to 2 up to zones 1 to 6, at TfL prices.
£41,700 is the general salary threshold for a Skilled Worker visa. Choose your job to fill in its minimum instead.
Your home
£847 a month leftOn £41,700 in Brent, a one-bed on your own leaves about £847 a month after tax, rent, council tax and a zones 1 to 4 Travelcard.
| Item | A month |
|---|---|
| Take-home pay | £2,795 |
| Rent | £1,577 |
| Council tax | £124 |
| Travelcard | £247 |
| Left | £847 |
Rent takes 56% of your take-home pay.
In England and Wales, ONS's average includes tenancies that started years ago as well as new ones, so a new tenancy usually costs more.
Monthly figures. Each borough includes a Travelcard into zone 1 from its usual zone. Tap a borough to see its breakdown, and change the Travelcard under the result.
| Place | Rent a month | Left a month |
|---|---|---|
| Zone 6 · £313 Travelcard | £1,217 | £1,147 |
| Zones 4 to 6 · £313 Travelcard | £1,229 | £1,138 |
| Zones 4 to 5 · £293 Travelcard | £1,239 | £1,131 |
| Zones 3 to 6 · £247 Travelcard | £1,312 | £1,117 |
| Zones 5 to 6 · £313 Travelcard | £1,252 | £1,116 |
| Zones 3 to 6 · £313 Travelcard | £1,265 | £1,091 |
| Zones 3 to 5 · £202 Travelcard | £1,400 | £1,077 |
| Zones 4 to 5 · £247 Travelcard | £1,368 | £1,068 |
| Zones 2 to 4 · £202 Travelcard | £1,457 | £1,027 |
| Zones 4 to 5 · £293 Travelcard | £1,377 | £1,018 |
| Zones 4 to 6 · £293 Travelcard | £1,422 | £970 |
| Zones 4 to 6 · £293 Travelcard | £1,394 | £968 |
| Zones 4 to 6 · £313 Travelcard | £1,379 | £958 |
| Zones 3 to 5 · £247 Travelcard | £1,500 | £930 |
| Zones 2 to 4 · £202 Travelcard | £1,563 | £928 |
| Zones 2 to 4 · £202 Travelcard | £1,630 | £868 |
| Zones 2 to 4 · £247 Travelcard | £1,577 | £847 |
| Zones 2 to 5 · £202 Travelcard | £1,629 | £845 |
| Zones 2 to 6 · £247 Travelcard | £1,583 | £844 |
| Zones 2 to 4 · £202 Travelcard | £1,639 | £842 |
| Zones 3 to 4 · £202 Travelcard | £1,639 | £835 |
| Zones 3 to 6 · £202 Travelcard | £1,732 | £723 |
| Zones 1 to 3 · £172 Travelcard | £1,876 | £651 |
| Zones 1 to 3 · £172 Travelcard | £1,882 | £627 |
| Zones 1 to 3 · £202 Travelcard | £1,938 | £598 |
| Zones 1 to 3 · £172 Travelcard | £1,992 | £529 |
| Zones 2 to 3 · £172 Travelcard | £2,000 | £528 |
| Zones 1 to 3 · £172 Travelcard | £2,001 | £522 |
| Zones 1 to 3 · £172 Travelcard | £2,054 | £446 |
| Zones 1 to 3 · £172 Travelcard | £2,178 | £328 |
| Zones 1 to 2 · £172 Travelcard | £2,548 | £9 |
| Zones 1 to 2 · £172 Travelcard | £2,640 | −£121 |
A one-bed in Havering costs £1,423 a month less than one in Kensington and Chelsea. Havering's Travelcard costs £141.70 more. After rent, council tax and travel, you'd still have about £1,268 more each month in Havering, but the journey into central London takes longer.
If you share a two-bed and pay half the rent and council tax, it's £1,643 left in Waltham Forest and £809 left in Kensington and Chelsea, Travelcard included.
The London average one-bed is £1,760 a month. Only 7 of the 32 boroughs are within 10% of it, and 11 are more than 20% below it. So we ask where you'd live and show every borough.
Band D costs £1,028 a year in Wandsworth and £2,609 in Kingston upon Thames, the lowest and highest of the 32 boroughs. A typical one-bed home is in Band B in 13 boroughs, Band C in 16 and Band D in 3. We use each borough's own typical band.
That depends on the borough and the home. On £41,700 you take home about £2,795 a month. For a one-bed on your own, after council tax and a Travelcard, that's £1,147 left in Havering and £121 short in Kensington and Chelsea. If you share a two-bed, it's £1,643 left in Waltham Forest and £809 left in Kensington and Chelsea. What's left still has to pay for bills, food and a pension.
For a one-bed, Havering: £1,217 a month on average (ONS, August 2026). Kensington and Chelsea is the most expensive, at £2,640. After council tax and a Travelcard, Havering leaves the most on £41,700. That's £1,147 left each month.
We assume your job is in zone 1, in central London, so we add a monthly Travelcard from zone 1 to the borough's usual zone. That's the zone where it has the most stations, or the lower one if two zones have the same number. It costs £171.70 a month for zones 1 to 2 and £313.40 for zones 1 to 6. If you don't travel to work every weekday, paying as you go with TfL's daily cap usually costs less than a monthly Travelcard. You can change the zones in the calculator, or choose no Travelcard.
In England and Wales, ONS's average includes tenancies that started years ago as well as new ones, so a new tenancy usually costs more. If you know the rent you'd pay, type it into the calculator.
Not through benefits: Universal Credit, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction are public funds, which a Skilled Worker visa doesn't let you claim. The 25% council tax discount for living alone isn't a public fund, so you can still get it.
Rents: ONS, Price Index of Private Rents, 16 September 2026 edition, with rents for August 2026 (June 2026 in Northern Ireland). ONS explains what its averages cover in its quality and methodology information.
Council tax:
The VOA's counts of homes by band and bedrooms give the band of a typical home of each size in England and Wales.
Scotland doesn't publish bands by home size, so for Scottish cities we estimate them. The one-bed and two-bed estimates use National Records of Scotland, dwellings by council tax band and dwelling type, 2017. The three-bed band is the typical band of all homes in gov.scot's chargeable dwellings for September 2025.
Travelcard prices: TfL, from 1 March 2026.
A borough's usual zone is the fare zone where it has the most stations (the lower zone where two have the same number). We looked up 812 zoned stations in TfL's open data and placed the 587 inside Greater London in their boroughs by nearest postcode in the ONS Postcode Directory.
Income tax and National Insurance: 2026-27 rates from GOV.UK.
Job minimums: GOV.UK, Immigration Rules Appendix Skilled Occupations.
Public funds: GOV.UK, Public funds.
Council tax discount for living alone: GOV.UK, Council Tax: who has to pay.