Average rents in London are approaching 80 percent of residents’ average monthly income, while prices are exceeding the £2,000 mark.
According to recent data from Statista, the average salary of a Londoner is just over £41,000. After taxes, that’s around £2,600 a month.
Meanwhile, a new study by Homelet found that rents in London average £2,039 per calendar month – about 78% of the average take-home pay.
Rents have also risen outside the capital, with the UK average price now at £1,213, up 1.2% on the previous month’s average of £1,199.
The trends reported in the HomeLet rental index are based on data on actual rental values achieved for recently concluded tenancies in the most recent period.
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Excluding London, the average rent in the UK is £1,016 per calendar month, up 1% month-on-month and 9.5% year-on-year.
According to the study, Scotland was the country with the highest monthly rent increases, with an average rent increase of 2.6%.
The North East, the region with the lowest rental prices in the UK, saw another decline, down 2.0% month-on-month to £632.
“The fact that the London market is rising in terms of average prices while the cheapest areas of the country (North East England) are falling shows that demand is to some extent dependent on location. However, the general rule is that there are too few rental properties to meet demand. Many potential renters are facing a real battle for a property,” said Andy Halstead, CEO of HomeLet & Let Alliance. “In this hectic market, prices are likely to continue to rise in the coming months.”
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The new data comes against a backdrop of mounting pressure on the mortgage market. Earlier this week, it was revealed that British households were struggling to pay their rising mortgages, with the number of loans in arrears rising by almost double digits to £14.9 billion.
The number of homeowners behind on their monthly mortgage payments rose 9.5 percent in the first three months of the year and 12.5 percent year-on-year to £14.9 billion, according to the latest figures from the Bank of England.
This is the highest level since the beginning of 2021 and now accounts for almost 1% of all mortgage holdings.
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