Landlords receive an average of £1133 per month for one-bed properties in London, according to new research.
This figure is the equivalent of 57% of the average young worker’s take-home pay each month.
This is a 16 percentage point increase compared with 2007, when 41% of post-tax income went on rent for tenants aged between 22 and 29 years old.
Rent prices in London have increased by 48% since 2007 when young tenants were spending 41% of their take-home pay on rent each month.
The findings, based on Office for National Statistics data, show that average rents for a one-bed home in the rest of Britain is £746 per month – 27% higher than 2007.
This explains why in north-east England, for example, the cost of renting a one-bed home accounts for just over a third of a twentysomething’s post-tax income, down from 42% in 2007.
In Wales, 42% of a young renter’s post-tax pay is spent on rent, up from 35% in 2007.
Last year, the English Housing Survey reported that tenants in London in receipt of housing benefit spent 60% of their gross earnings on rent. This figure rose to 72% for tenants in the capital not claiming housing benefit.
Recent years have seen a steep increase in the number of tenants, driven by a number of factors including high house prices and harder tests for mortgages.
The most recent report from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors predicts that rents will rise at a faster pace than house prices over the next five years.
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