The best cities for renters revealed

With rents climbing by nearly £80 a week over the past five years and as more than a third of Brits live in rented homes, the best cities for renters have been revealed.

Landlord insurance firm Alan Boswell Group says it has found where tenants have it easiest to find a new home in the UK.

The data also highlights where the more difficult areas are with the insurer analysing rents, listing availability and the level of tenant competition.

Heath Alexander-Bew, a director at the firm, advises renters: “Don’t be afraid to widen your search to outside of the city centres; areas with great transport links can keep you connected to the city, and oftentimes will save you money.”

The best place for renters

Sunderland emerges as the best place for renters, with a score of 3.77 out of 10.

The city’s average monthly rent is £676, and with 6.27% of residents renting, the city offers around 15.7 available homes per 1,000 people.

Sunderland’s affordability is not only good news for tenants but also for landlords since it has relatively low property prices and attractive yields.

There are also new housing developments helping to transform the city’s landscape.

Cities with cheap rents

Middlesbrough came second, scoring 3.86 with one of the country’s cheapest rents at £672, and 8.12% of locals rent their homes.

The town also offers a healthy 23.9 listings per 1,000 renters, ranking 20th in the study for supply.

Rotherham and Doncaster shared third place, both scoring 4.16 out of 10.

Rotherham’s rents average £664 per month, one of the lowest figures in the analysis, while 6.16% of residents rent.

Doncaster renters pay a similar £659 per month, with 8.11% of the population renting and 12.5 listings per 1,000 residents.

Barnsley completed the top five with an average monthly rent of £646 and a market pressure score of 4.24.

Most expensive city to rent in

At the other end of the scale is Oxford, rated the UK’s toughest city for tenants with a score of 9.23.

The average rent in August was £1,897, that’s second only to London, meaning tenants spend around 36.6% of their income on housing.

The city’s housing supply is limited, with 437 rental listings and 24.6 homes available per 1,000 renters.

Rents in Oxford have surged by nearly 12% over the past year, pushing prices to more than 40% above the national average.

The Alan Boswell Group’s FOI also found that Oxford has one of the UK’s longest social housing waiting lists.

There are 3,443 households waiting an average of 5.2 years for a property.

‘Worst city for renters’

Portsmouth is second on the ‘worst city for renters’ list with a score of 9.14.

With 11.5% of residents renting, there are only 162 properties available, which equates to 6.6 per 1,000 renters.

Tenants there spend nearly 30% of their salary on rent.

London is third, scoring 9.12 and with average rents at £2,253, and more than 11% of Londoners renting their homes, there’s nearly 43,000 listings available.

Cambridge (9.01) and Reading (8.97) round out the five most pressured rental markets.