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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Business
Ruby Flanagan

Brits spending more on rent than at any other point in last 10 years

Brits are spending more of their wages on rent than at any other point over the last 10 years.

According to property portal Zoopla, the average UK tenant is paying 28.3% of their pay, before tax, on their rent alone.

This is compared to the 27% which has been the average over the last decade.

Even a 1% increase can have a significant impact on household budgets during the current cost of living crisis.

If a first time buyer hand a mortgage on the property they were renting then they would only be paying 26% of their total pay.

In London, which is notoriously one of the most expensive places to rent in the country, rents can take up to 40% of gross earnings - this is the highest in the UK.

Has your rent gone up? Let us know by emailing mirror.money.saving@mirror.co.uk

Rents have risen significantly over the last 12 months.

The monumental rise in the cost of rental homes is being blamed on the rising mortgage costs of landlords due to interest rates and demand for properties outstripping supply on the market.

This means there are more tenants looking for rental homes than there are homes available.

Zoopla said that there are 20% to 40% fewer homes to rent in most regions than there were before the Coronavirus pandemic - across the UK the average figure sits at -28%.

The demand in the four weeks leading to June sat at 57% higher than the average over the last five years.

With rental increases, residents in Edinburgh have seen the highest increase between April 2022 and April 2023 with the average price rising by 13.7%.

Rent in London was 13.5% higher than a year ago, in Glasgow, it was 12.3% higher, and residents in Southhampton saw a 10.7% increase.

The typical rise across the UK has been around 10% compared with a year earlier - this is just below the highest inflation figure of 11.1% which the UK saw in October last year.

The lowest rent rises were seen in Belfast which saw increases of 4.3%, Sheffield with 7.4%, and Leeds with 8.1%.

Affordability of renting is now at its worst for a decade, with Richard Donnell, the executive director at Zoopla, saying there are now signs of financial “stress” on tenants, particularly those on low incomes.

UK annual rent increases set a new record for 12 consecutive months up to April this year, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Evictions due to rent arrears has also reached the highest on records going back to 2009 in the first three months of the year, according to Generation Rent analysis of government data.

"No fault” evictions, which is where a landlord can end your rental contract without an explicit reason, has jumped to the highest level since 2017.

The Government has begun to debate on its Renters Reform bills four years after it was promised however, the bill does not include a cap on rental prices or rental price controls.

The devolved countries of the UK has consulted on this concept.

The Scottish government has limited rent increases and banned evictions since September 2022 while the Welsh government is currently consulting on the idea of bringing in rent controls.

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