In London, renters can expect to spend just under 40 per cent of their income on private renting. This is based on figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which looked at the percentage of income that renters with a median household income could expect to spend on renting a median-priced property in 2020.
The east Midlands saw renters paying the lowest percentage of their income on rent at 22 per cent. Many regions saw an increase in rental affordability with the proportion of renters’ income required to rent lower in 2020 than in 2015. Renters in the east of England saw the biggest reduction in affordability with the proportion of income spent on rent increasing from 23 per cent in 2015 to 26 per cent in 2020.
In 2015, renters in London were spending 4.6 percentage points more (42 per cent) of their income on rent. However, despite this, the percentage of income Londoners spend on rent is still above the figure of 30 per cent: the threshold that the ONS deems to be affordable.
[See also: Energy prices, petrol, rent and food: What’s driving the UK’s cost of living crisis?]
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