According to lyricist Neil Tennant, the title was chosen for its association with rent boys with the intention of being provocative,[4] but the story he envisioned for the song was about a mistress of a powerful man.

I vaguely thought of one of the Kennedys, for some reason, and imagined that this politician keeps this woman in a smart flat in Manhattan, and he's still got this family, and the two of them have some sort of relationship and they do love each other but it's all kind of secret...[5]The original inspiration for the music was the Italo disco song "I Like Chopin" by Gazebo.

[5] For the album version, producer Julian Mendelsohn decided that they already had enough uptempo songs for Actually, so keyboard programmer Andy Richards reduced the tempo by half.

The other, filmed in colour, features Margi Clarke as the partner of a wealthy man (played by Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath), who is hosting a dinner party.

[10] Pet Shop Boys performed "Rent" on Sunday Night at the London Palladium on ITV on 11 October 1987, with Lowe wearing an Issey Miyake inflatable rubber jacket.

[11][12] On their first tour in 1989 to Hong Kong, Japan, and the UK, "Rent" was staged with Tennant interacting with backing singer Juliet Roberts as the characters from the song.