Londoners fork out 40 per cent of pay checks on rent each month on average
Londoners are forking out nearly half of their pay checks on rent each month, according to official data today.
It is no surprise London was the least affordable region in the UK for rent, with an average monthly cost of £1,430 – the equivalent to 40 per cent of median income in the year to March 2021, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Elsewhere in England, private renters could expect to spend 26 per cent of their income on a average-priced rented home, slightly higher than in Wales and Northern Ireland.
The data is fairly historic given the recent leaps in rental costs in the capital and the rest of the UK, after the residential market lost more thousands buy-to-let properties in the past year.
Research by accountancy group UHY Hack Young revealed on Monday that the market has lost an eyewatering 116,000 buy-to-let properties between 2020 and 2021, while 70,000 landlords have exited the market.
Neela Chauhan, partner at UHY Hacker Young, said that the large number of buy-to-let landlords backing out of the market is partly due to the substantial increases in tax levied on the sector.
“We have seen an increasing number of landlords selling off or reducing their portfolios over the past year. Less favourable tax treatment has encouraged this exit from the sector, as well as dissuading newcomers from entering the market,” she said.
“Reducing the number of properties for rent by driving landlords out of the market doesn’t benefit tenants as it adds to the upward momentum on rents.”