UK tenants face affordability crisis as rents soar

Monthly rents across the UK have surged to unaffordable levels in every region except the North East, research reveals.

Analytics firm TwentyCi has published its latest Property and Homemover Report which compares average full-time employee incomes from the ONS, with median rents.

The Office for National Statistics defines affordable rent as 30% or less of median household income.

However, TwentyCi found that tenants in all regions except the North East now exceed this threshold.

‘Properties to rent’

The firm’s chief executive, Colin Bradshaw, said: “The ongoing shortage of rental properties in comparison with the surge in demand continues to drive rents upwards.

“Available properties to rent are at their lowest since TwentyCi has been recording data in the last 15 years, falling to 259,000 in September 2024 for the whole of the UK, compared with 332,000 in September 2019 — a reduction of more than 22%.”

He says the shortage of rental properties has been exacerbated by the continued exit of landlords from the PRS due to tax and regulatory changes.

‘Landlords have had enough’

The report reveals that 11.3% of all new properties for sale are former private rental properties within the last three years.

That’s up from last year when 6.8% of new for-sale properties were former rentals.

Mr Bradshaw said: “Nowhere in the UK has this change been more evident than in Inner London, where in Q3 2024, 47.2% of all new for-sale properties were also rented in the three years prior. It appears landlords have had enough and are selling up.”

Unsurprisingly, London has the highest rental burden, with tenants spending more than 57% of their monthly income (£3,698) on an average rent of £2,119.

The South East, South West and East of England also demand more than 40% of average salaries in rent.

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