Money · 6 min read
How much does it cost to be a property guardian? Prices in 2026, and how they've changed since 2011
What guardian rooms and homes cost in October 2026, what else to budget for, and how prices and fees have changed since 2011.
Facts checked 27 October 2026
Say you've found a guardian room listed at £600 a month. Up front, you could be asked for a deposit of up to 5 weeks' payment (about £690) plus your first payment.
Then there may be bills, council tax and wifi on top. So the real cost can be more than the number on the listing.
Property guardians pay a monthly "licence fee" instead of rent. Here's what guardians pay, what to add on, and how it has changed. This guide describes England. It is general information, not advice.
In short
- Room: £480 a month in the middle. About £670 in London, £405 elsewhere.
- Whole flat or house: about £800 a month. £1,340 in London.
- Prices were mostly £250 to £650 a month in 2017 to 2021, and have risen fast since 2022.
- Admin, sign-up and "fire pack" fees were common before 2019. They are now banned. You pay a holding deposit, a deposit and the first payment.
What guardians pay in 2026
These are the prices firms listed on this site on 27 October 2026, a month. Where a listing gives a range, we use the lowest ("from") price.
The middle price is the median: half the listings cost less, half cost more. The typical range is the middle half of listings (25th to 75th percentile).
Middle (median) "from" price a month in the listings on this site on 27 October 2026, rounded to the nearest £5. Regions shown only where there are at least 10 listings. These are asking prices, not what people end up paying.
Middle (median) "from" price a month in the listings on this site on 27 October 2026, rounded to the nearest £5. Regions shown only where there are at least 10 listings. These are asking prices, not what people end up paying.
The full figures
| Where | Listings | Middle price | Typical range |
|---|---|---|---|
| All | 106 | £480 | £400 to £650 |
| London | 48 | £670 | £590 to £775 |
| Outside London | 58 | £405 | £375 to £450 |
| South East | 19 | £440 | £400 to £465 |
| West Midlands | 12 | £350 | £350 to £380 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 10 | £400 | £395 to £440 |
| Where | Listings | Middle price | Typical range |
|---|---|---|---|
| All | 63 | £800 | £700 to £995 |
| London | 16 | £1,340 | £850 to £1,560 |
| Outside London | 47 | £800 | £665 to £900 |
| West Midlands | 10 | £900 | £800 to £940 |
| South East | 10 | £775 | £715 to £800 |
Rounded to the nearest £5. These are asking prices, not what people end up paying. Most listings come from a few firms: two firms list 78 of the 106 rooms, and one firm 45 of the 63 whole homes. One whole home outside London is in Scotland. Listings that don't say whether the price is per room or for the whole place, and a few that fit neither table (such as studios priced per person), are left out. See them all on the listings page.
Extra costs to budget for
The listed price is not always the whole cost. Check these.
Rooms listed on 27 October 2026.
Heating
The fact sheet warns that heating and lighting may be "considerably higher" than in ordinary rented homes. Big old buildings can be hard to heat.
Council tax
Who pays depends on the building. Shelter says the landlord might have to pay in a shared house (HMO). An office building with guardians in it stayed on business rates in a 2020 court case.
Wifi
Four of the 11 firms we track say broadband is extra, and the rest don't say (firms' rules).
Furniture and insurance
Several firms say rooms are usually unfurnished, and two say you need your own contents insurance (firms' rules). The fact sheet says you might have to buy your own furniture.
Deposits and up-front money
Since June 2019, the Tenant Fees Act has covered guardian licences as well as tenancies. Up front, a firm can ask for three things:
A holding deposit
Up to 1 week's payment.A deposit
Up to 5 weeks' payment. On a £600 room, 5 weeks is about £690.Your first payment
Also paid up front.
Of the 11 firms we track, three say the deposit is 5 weeks' payment, one says a month, and one says it is typically £400 (firms' rules). More in our guide to deposits and fees.
How prices changed since 2011
We read about 210 old copies of firms' websites saved by the Internet Archive. They show what firms advertised on the day. Treat them as examples, not an exact index.
2011 to 2016: weekly prices
Mostly between £30 and £100 a week (about £130 to £435 a month). Several quoted £50 to £90 a week. Some rooms outside London were £160 to £250 a month in 2015.
2017 to 2021: £250 to £650
Most listings were between £250 and £650 a month.
2022 to 2026: a clear step up
In 2022 one firm raised its lowest fee from £185 to £325 a month, and its highest from £860 to £995.
Roughly double. That figure mixes rooms and whole flats. The archive has gaps. Since about 2022 many listing pages load in a way the archive doesn't save, and some firms have no archived pages at all. Years are when a page was saved, not when a firm changed it.
How fees, deposits and rules changed
Up-front fees: gone since 2019
Before 2019 almost every firm with archived terms charged extras on top of the deposit: admin, placement or registration fees of £20 to £130, and "fire safety pack" fees of £60 to £80 (archived firm pages). A 2017 survey found three-quarters of London guardians paid for fire packs.
After the Tenant Fees Act took effect in June 2019, firms dropped these fees from their terms. On a few websites the old fee lines stayed up for 1 to 4 years. That shows the pages weren't updated, not that the fees were charged.
Deposits: often bigger now
Deposits used to be flat sums, from £300 to £800, or one month's payment. Several firms now ask for 5 weeks' payment, which on most rooms costs more than the old flat sums.
Who can apply: stricter
From 2022 several firms set a minimum income of £15,000 to £18,000 a year (one later dropped it). One firm raised its minimum age from 18 to 25 between January 2025 and January 2026; another went from 18 to 21. Some firms that once took students now say "employed" only (archived firm pages).
How do guardian prices compare with ordinary rents?
Rents: the Office for National Statistics average private rent, September 2026. Guardian: middle price of a whole home listed on this site, 27 October 2026. Not like-for-like.
The Office for National Statistics put the average private rent in September 2026 at £1,466 a month in England and £2,338 in London. A whole guardian home listed on this site had a middle price of about £800 a month, or £1,340 in London.
The government's fact sheet says guardianship "is generally cheaper than renting a property at local market value". But you get fewer rights: see property guardian vs renting.
Questions people ask
How much is a property guardian room in London?
In our listings on 27 October 2026, the middle price was about £670 a month, and most were between £590 and £775.
Are bills included?
Sometimes. About half the rooms listed said bills were included. Check each listing, and ask about council tax and wifi too.
Can a firm charge an admin fee?
No. Up front, a firm in England can ask only for a holding deposit (up to 1 week), a deposit (up to 5 weeks) and your first payment. Later charges are limited to a short list, such as a late-payment charge or a lost key, under the Tenant Fees Act.
Can my price go up?
Yes. A licence fee rises however your agreement says, not under the rules for tenants. Ask how and how often before you sign. Our checklist covers this.
Next: read what property guardianship is, go through the before-you-sign checklist, see London guardian rooms, read what the Renters' Rights Act changed or the other guides, or browse every listing.
This guide describes England. It is general information, not legal advice.