Living in a house share can be great fun – or a right pain, depending on how well you get on with your housemates. It also seems like an affordable way to rent for many – but according to a new study, it’s getting pricier.
Spare Room says the average cost of renting a room in the UK has increased by £15 per month (3%) since this time last year, bringing the average monthly rent up to £582 across the UK. Rents are on the up in all regions of the UK, with London, Northern Ireland and West Midlands being hit the hardest.
Spare Room’s analysis of the UK’s 50 largest towns and cities indicates that Preston, in Lancashire, has seen the biggest increase with monthly rents up 8% to £378 per month. Rents in York and Stockport are also up an average of 7% each, the site said, while Southend-On-Sea, Aberdeen, and West Bromwich sit at the bottom of the table with decreases of 5%, 3%, and 3%, respectively.
[Read More: A Failsafe Guide To Cleaning In A Flat Share]
London is the most expensive place to rent a spare room (£757) followed by Oxford, where the average monthly rent costs £572, Reading (£530), and Edinburgh (£519).
The cheapest rents can be found in Belfast (£312), Sunderland (£319) and Middlesbrough (£327), according to the site.
Wait, so why is my rent increasing?
Spare Room says the rental market is particularly buoyant. “House prices may have stalled but rents are on the up again,” its communications director, Matt Hutchinson said. “The ongoing Brexit mayhem might be putting people off buying or selling, but renters still need to move.”
In a separate recent report, Rightmove also found that rents for private properties were up almost across the board. The company said increases had been driven by demand for housing outstripping supply – it said the number of available properties were dipping by 33% in London and by 13% across the rest of England, Wales and Scotland.