Renting in the UK: rents across Britain are rising three times faster than in London

A new report reveals the number of rooms available to rent in Britain has risen by 25 per cent over the past year, with rental costs in cities across Britain rising faster than those in the capital...
Bristol is one of Britain's fastest-rising towns, with room rents rising 11 per cent to an average of £463.
© eye35 / Alamy Stock Photo
Lizzie Rivera8 June 2016

Room rents are rising fastest outside the capital, reveals a new report by flat and house sharing site Spareroom.co.uk.

While London rents are now showing reduced growth of just under two per cent, averaging £747 a month, rentals across the rest of the UK are rising more than three times as fast, and even more in certain cities.

Luton, Bedfordshire, in London's commuter belt, has had the highest rise - of 14 per cent - taking the average monthly rent to £446.

This is closely followed by Swindon in Wiltshire, with average rents of £463, Crossrail hotspot Reading in Berkshire, where monthly rents are now £549, and increasingly trendy Bristol, in the South West, where rents have risen by 11 per cent to £463.

How the average cost of renting a room varies across the UK

1/11

“The first quarter of 2016 saw some respite for renters, thanks to an upturn in supply as buy-to-let investors rushed to complete ahead of the stamp duty increase," says Spareroom.co.uk director Matt Hutchinson."But this may only provide temporary relief - the UK’s residential rental market is still groaning under the weight of demand, particularly in London’s satellite towns.

"Even cities like Manchester and Birmingham, which offer some of the highest levels of supply for renters in the UK, are massively oversubscribed, with six tenants competing for every room."

Unsurprisingly, the most expensive rents are in London's satellite towns, with Twickenham in south-west London topping the list with an average rent of £647, followed by Esher in Surrey at £629, and Barnet, in Hertfordshire, at £625.

Meanwhile, rents in Bradford in West Yorkshire, Dundee in Scotland, and Sunderland in the North East all average £320 or less.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in