Rising rents force one in three UK tenants to move
Key Points
- 32% of UK renters and 35% of London renters moved home in the past year because their rent became unaffordable
- 67% of UK renters saw their rent increase in the past 12 months
- Almost four in ten renters spend more than half their take-home pay on rent
- 85% of renters support rent controls, with only 8% opposed
- 57% say rising rents have affected their mental wellbeing
Rising rents forced 32% of UK tenants and 35% of London tenants to move home in the past year because they could no longer afford their housing costs, a new SpareRoom survey of 5,607 renters shows.
The survey found that 67% of UK renters saw their rent increase in the past 12 months.
Of those, 42% faced rises in their current rental and 25% paid more when they moved into a new property. London fared worse, with 70% of renters in the capital reporting an increase over the same period.
Renters spending half their income on housing
Affordability has deteriorated to the point where just 15% of UK renters spend less than 30% of their take-home pay on rent, the threshold typically used to define affordable housing.
Almost four in ten renters (39%) spend more than half their after-tax income on rent, rising to 40% in London.
| Share of take-home pay spent on rent | UK | London | UK excluding London | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Less than 30% | 15.3% | 13.1% | 16.7% | Commonly used affordability benchmark |
| 30% or more | 84.7% | 86.8% | 83.3% | |
| 50% or more | 37.8% | 39.9% | 36.4% | Excludes bills |
| 70% or more | 9% | 9.2% | 8.8% |
The impact extends well beyond household budgets. 57% of renters said rising rents affected their mental wellbeing, 84% said their ability to save was hit, and 28% said the cost of housing affected their ability to change jobs.
Nearly a quarter (23%) said they delayed having children because of rent rises, 22% delayed moving in with a partner, and 24% said the cost of renting affected their ability to date. Only 7% said rising rents had not affected their lives in any way.
Overwhelming support for rent controls
Rent controls proved strikingly popular among those surveyed, with 85% of renters strongly or somewhat in support and only 8% opposed. Support for temporary rent freezes as an emergency measure ran even higher at 87%.
Among the small minority who opposed rent controls, 70% said the policy fails to address the root cause of high rents, which is insufficient housing supply. 60% warned that controls risk pushing landlords out of the market and driving rents higher in the long term.
Matt Hutchinson, Director at SpareRoom, said rents have just hit record highs in six of the UK’s nine regions while supply has taken a battering following the introduction of the Renters’ Rights Act.
“Although tenants are now better protected in the market, they are certainly not better off,” Hutchinson said.
“It’s easy to see why the majority of renters support rent controls, they’ll bring some much needed relief from rent rises, but they won’t solve the underlying supply issue. The real question is whether Andy Burnham’s Labour government will manage to do what successive governments have failed to for decades and meaningfully increase the UK’s supply of affordable homes.”
