0:01 AM, 15th October 2025, About 2 months ago
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Spending less than 30% of gross income on rent is no longer an attainable affordability threshold for many under-30s, claims SpareRoom.
The flat-sharing website claims average-earning under 30s are now being priced out of cities including London, Cambridge and Bath.
SpareRoom says many renters under 30 are more financially reliant on their parents to help pay their rent.
Office for National Statistics (ONS) wage data puts the gross median annual wage of 18-21 year olds working full-time at £22,001 (£1,833 per month) and £31,200 (£2,600 per month) for 22-29 year olds.
SpareRoom says according to the ‘30% rule’, rent budgets should not exceed £550 per month and £780 per month, respectively. For an under-30 earning £26,600 (£2,217 per month), the midpoint between the median salaries for each age group, the monthly rent budget would be £665.
According to SpareRoom, the monthly budget (£780) for 22-29-year-olds is enough to cover the UK average room rent (£753 per month), but falls far short of the London average rent (£995 per month) by £2,580 per year. A middle-earning under-30 with a budget of £665 per month would have to find an additional £1,056 per year to cover the average rent.
The average budget of 22-29 year olds (£780pm) excludes them from living in London, Edinburgh, Oxford, Bath and Cambridge.
Far more limited are the options of working 18-21-year-olds. Their average budget (£550pm) is £2,436 per year lower than the UK average room rent of £753 per month. They are excluded from most major cities but could afford to rent in 12 cities including Liverpool, Swansea, Sheffield, Wolverhampton and Aberdeen.
Matt Hutchinson, director of flatshare site SpareRoom, comments: “In reality, the 30% affordability rule has been unrealistic for a long time. When rents are 40% or even 50% of income, as is more common today, affording them is challenging and saving for a deposit is out of the question.
“This doesn’t just delay life plans. If you can’t meet unexpected costs outside of normal expenditure, then you’re more prone to debt. And when disposable income is severely reduced there are knock-on effects for mental health and loneliness. So this is more than a problem for renters, it’s a problem for the economy and for society too.”
Mr Hutchinson says the Renters’ Rights Bill will help tenants by banning rent in advance, but more needs to be done to tackle high rents.
He said: “It’s not only sky-high rents that exclude more under 30s today; there are other barriers to entry. Not everyone can save a deposit equivalent to five weeks’ rent and many parents can’t afford to help either. The Renters’ Rights Bill seeks to ban the practice of asking for rent in advance, sometimes as much as 12 months’ worth, which will level the playing field.
“Tenants will also be able to challenge annual rent increases, which can be reduced if the proposed rent is deemed to be above the market value. But that doesn’t tackle the biggest challenge of all which is that market-value rents are already way too high.”
The findings by SpareRoom also reveal renters under 30 are also more financially reliant on parents and relatives.
Over a quarter (26%) had received a deposit loan to help them start renting in the first place, and almost a fifth (19%) had needed financial help to meet their monthly rent payments.
At the same time, renters aged 18 to 24 are decreasing. In 2014, this age group made up around a third (32%) of the users on SpareRoom. A decade later, this had dropped to just over a quarter (27%).
As for 25-34 year olds, they made up 45% of the flatshare market in 2014, a figure that had dropped to 42%, ten years later, as the presence of older age groups in the market increased.
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