19 Renters Around The UK Share How Much They Pay, And What It Gets Them
By Jess Commons
Ah renting. The curse of our generation. In England, 48% of people under 35 rent from a private landlord, and the number of over 35s in the rental market is only growing. It is estimated that one third of Millennials will never be able to afford their own home.
Which would be fine. If rent was affordable. But people in their 20s spend roughly 35% of their salaries on rent and during lockdown, private rents in England hit record highs. The median rent was highest in London, £1,425 a month, and lowest in north east England, £495.
But enough doom and gloom! In this time of fluctuation while people re-evaluate their lives and think of alternative ways of living, we decided to ask readers from around the country how much their rent is. Click through to see if there’s cheaper rent in your future in a different area of the UK altogether!
Erin, 26, Aberdeen
How much do you spend on rent?
£385 alone. £770 for whole property.
How did you find your place? I found it on CityLets website. I had been casually looking for around two months before viewing this one.
What do you love or hate about your place? It’s so much bigger compared to previous places I’ve rented. I have a driveway, garage, garden and a set of stairs that are entirely my own (since it’s a house and not a flat!).
How has COVID affected your living situation? It’s become both work and home for myself and my partner. Our spare bedroom has become his office whilst there’s now a huge desk in our sitting room that I use. Other than that, no real change.
Emily, 23, Barista, Battersea/Clapham Junction
How much do you spend on rent?
£630 for a room in a shared house.
How did you find your place?
I moved in with my boyfriend and his friends. It took me approximately six months to finally decide to move in here!
What do you love or hate about your place?
I love the location! It’s so close to London and has an amazing green space. What I hate is the fact that you can’t touch a hot tap whilst someone is taking a shower otherwise you’re doused in ice water.
How has COVID affected your living situation?
We had to let a flatmate go because of how he dealt with the COVID-19 situation. We also had to contact our landlord about our rent as four out of five of us lost our work because of lockdown.
Sofia, 29, Senior Account Manager, London
How much do you spend on rent? £750 pcm for my room. Collectively we pay £2,300 for a three bed flat in Brixton.
How did you find your place?
My best friend and flatmate rented her old flat from this developer and when she gave notice and explained why she was leaving (moving in with two friends) they shared a list of suitable properties including this one.
What do you love or hate about your place? Love that the bedrooms are all good sizes and that it has the nicest fireplace in the living room. Hate that we live on the busiest road in south London.
How has COVID affected your living situation? I was meant to buy a property but temporary salary reductions meant I couldn’t. Instead, I’ve ended up renting for a bit longer, but I’m living with two amazing friends which is def a bonus.
Sarah, 19, student, Norwich
How much do you spend on rent?
£336 per month on rent and an extra £50 on bills. I get a double bedroom in a four bed house which has one shower and two toilets.
How did you find your place?
After about one month of searching online, found on Home Run, an organisation that helps students in Norwich find housing.
What do you love or hate about your place? Our shower has absolutely terrible water pressure and we have no table to eat at, but the location is good and rooms are big.
How has COVID affected your living situation?
I had to move out of university halls early but still moved into my current house when I was meant to.
Rose, 23, Local Government Worker, Teesside
How much do you spend on rent?
£450 a month for a two bed flat.
How did you find your place? Found it on Rightmove, got a viewing straight away and offered for it the next day, moved in within two weeks.
What do you love or hate about your place? LOVE that it has a spare bedroom for a home office now, and it has garden space. Hate neighbours who are noisy and have parties which flout COVID rules.
How has COVID affected your living situation? I’m at home a lot more now I’m working from home so it’s nice to have the space to do that in my spare room.
Ayesha, 22, London
How much do you spend on rent? £730 for a room in a five bed house.
How did you find your place?
Spareroom after a month and a half of looking. Then I came to London for a week to look at final list in person.
What do you love or hate about your place? Price for a safe location, it’d close to the station and includes bills, so it is good for London. But it’s a single room, so feels like a shoebox. I share with four other people and not enough kitchen space and we have no lounge. The worst is the freezer has three small slots which is not enough for five people and there is no space for an additional freezer, so I’m looking into a mini freezer in my room but my room is small too.
How has COVID affected your living situation? I am moving back home to live with my parents. My job is temporarily remote and even if I have to go in it’ll be staggered so once or twice a week initially. Therefore, the train down is cheaper than London rent.
Caitlin, 25, Project Coordinator, Manchester
How much do you spend on rent?
£500 (£1000 total for the three bedroom house).
How did you find your place? Rightmove, within three weeks of starting my search. It was in high demand but the landlord met us and liked us!
What do you love or hate about your place? I love that it has three bedrooms for me and my partner, and that it is a house instead of a flat, which is great in Manchester. The house is fairly modern, with an en-suite to the bedroom, and a little garden which has been wonderful in recent months. It even has a car park so we don’t have to worry about parking, with no limit on the number of cars (very important to us). The house doesn’t contain any of our own furnishings though, right down to the landlord keeping her cutlery here, which is frustrating in terms of having our own possessions and enough space for our own kitchen stuff. Sometimes it feels like we’re living in an AirBnb, as it feels incredible impersonal to live surrounded by somebody else’s possessions, right down to the art on the walls. It was dirty when we moved in, with deep dirt and mould in the oven and washing machines, so it required a lot of work and deep cleaning at our own expense. The house can be quite humid as well, so we’ve had to purchase multiple dehumidifiers.
How has COVID affected your living situation?
We’ve been unaffected, I was furloughed but my partner was a key worker so made up for my losses. Our tenancy has just renewed for a third time at the same price (we’ve lived here since early 2018) so we feel like we have a good deal for our location and house type in Manchester!
Bella, 26, Solicitor, London
How much do you spend on rent?
£1,750 for a one-bed flat.
How did you find your place?
Rightmove, really quickly. There are loads of flats in this development.
What do you love or hate about your place? Super safe and really convenient.
How has COVID affected your living situation? Living by myself is way more depressing than it used to be, especially now I’m working from home all the time so not benefitting from the convenience of being so close to the office.
Em, 25, Education Officer, Bristol
How much do you spend on rent? £550 for a large double room in a two bed flat.
How did you find your place?
Through an agency, it took less than a month but this was over three years ago.
What do you love or hate about your place?
I love that I have a large room because in a house share you always spending more time there than you would if you lived alone/with partner. I have a good relationship with my landlord and the rent has not increased since I moved in. I hate that there is no garden or parking space. I also hate when I work out that I have paid £20,900 in rent in just over three years.
How has COVID affected your living situation? I spend far too much time inside the flat now hah! At least I am getting value for money!
Polly, 24, Nurse, Birmingham
How much do you spend on rent? £775 total for two bed (split with partner).
How did you find your place?
Rightmove over one month, super easy even during pandemic, had to push for a viewing only a week before we moved in due to social distancing. Asked landlord to make some changes (new mattress, curtain rails) and they did.
What do you love or hate about your place? Love the location, light filled, modern enough, quiet and green area, super close to work so can walk.
How has COVID affected your living situation?
I moved in with my boyfriend during the pandemic from a house share. Life has been much easier since as we can actually see each other as we are now the same household. Feel very glad to be in a decent flat that we love and feel safe in.
Dearbhla 29, Charity Advisor, Belfast
How much do you spend on rent? £575 for a two bed.
How did you find your place? Word of mouth as my friend’s mum is my landlord.
What do you love or hate about your place? Off street parking, own entrance and small front garden. Don’t hate anything!
How has COVID affected your living situation?
Working from home! Thank god for a spare bedroom.
Chloe, 22, NHS Informatics, Leeds
How much do you spend on rent?
£825 per month for a a two bed (split between me and my boyfriend).
How did you find your place?
Rightmove. We were looking during the first lockdown so it was a nightmare trying to find somewhere to rent (VERY high demand in Leeds, very few nice properties) I’d say it took around three months in total from starting looking at places to securing this place, and about a month from it coming up to us moving in. This two bed-semi was slightly over what we would have liked to have paid but it was by far the nicest that had come up in the three months of looking, and we’d been beaten to it for so many other properties that we were prepared to pay it, and I’m so glad we did! The letting agents have been great so far and the house even came with some furniture and a lawnmower thrown in!
What do you love or hate about your place? It’s fairly new so the insulation is amazing (after three years in mouldy student houses this is much appreciated) and therefore our bills are low. We’ve really been able to make it into our home not just a house to live in, and the garden has made such a difference, especially during lockdown. Only thing we hate is that we’ll have to move out when we’re ready to buy!
How has COVID affected your living situation?
It just made it so difficult to find somewhere, there were no viewings for months so as soon as they started again, the market went crazy and by the time we’d contacted the letting agents, the properties had already gone! My boyfriend also started his new job working from home so we needed a second bedroom for him to use as an office which wasn’t a priority before.
Leigh, 26, Teaching Assistant, Nottingham
How much do you spend on rent?
£370 for a room in a shared house.
How did you find your place?
Spare Room, I placed an advert saying I was looking for a room and the landlady contacted me saying she thought I’d fit in with the rest of the house. My ad was probably up for about a week.
What do you love or hate about your place? I love my housemates, I’ve been here since July and we’ve become really close friends. I also love that none of the downstairs has been made into an extra bedroom so we have a really large living space. We’re also able to hang things on the walls so it’s more homely than other rentals. This is the first place I’ve rented so I’m getting used to it being a bit colder than I’d like.
How has COVID affected your living situation? Not badly so far. I work in a school and so still have to go out to work. Luckily we get on really well in the house so we can go out for food together and not feel too cooped up. I moved in July after the worst of lockdown was over so I haven’t had it too badly.
Katie, 28, Editor, Sheffield
How much do you spend on rent?
£860 split between me and partner (£430 each).
How did you find your place?
Rightmove, we started looking around June and moved in August. We looked at a few other places and applied for some of them but the demand was really high at the time so we missed out on them.
What do you love or hate about your place? Big kitchen, nice location, separate office space for home working (I was previously working from the living room). It’s a bit more expensive than some other rentals in the area (we ended up offering a higher monthly rent because we fell in love with the place and we’d already missed out on three other properties).
How has COVID affected your living situation? I was previously living in a house share but moved in with my boyfriend over lockdown as my housemates both moved home, his contract was ending in August so we decided to find a place together.
Heather, 24, Utilities Planner, Lincolnshire
How much do you spend on rent?
£625 a month shared with my partner — this includes gas, water and electricity.
How did you find your place? Found through OpenRent, viewed within the week and moved in a month later.
What do you love or hate about your place? Love the flat itself, it’s a one bedroom built into an attic space that had some personality when we moved in which is such a difference to other places we viewed. I wouldn’t say I hate anything about it however it would be nicer to be closer to town.
How has COVID affected your living situation?
It hasn’t really — my partner and I are key workers so we’ve been lucky enough to keep working throughout the pandemic, our rent hasn’t increased. COVID has made us more motivated to buy a place of our own which is something we’re now working towards.
Kathryn, 25, Librarian, York
How much do you spend on rent?
£750 pcm, split 50/50 with my partner.
How did you find your place?
We found it through Zoopla — probably took a couple of weeks. We moved to York from Bedfordshire so we had to cram all our viewings into one very hectic Saturday!
What do you love or hate about your place? I hate that the bathroom is a badly insulated extension so it’s cold and damp all the time. I love that it’s really well located and got two bedrooms and a pretty decent kitchen (except for the mysterious lack of drawers).
How has COVID affected your living situation? It hasn’t really (I’m NHS so my job is secure), but it did make me realise that I really want to live somewhere with a garden.
Gemma, 33, Civil Servant, Inverness
How much do you spend on rent?
£650. I have a two bed semi-detached house with a decent garden.
How did you find your place?
It’s a private rent that my mum alerted me to through one of her Facebook friends. I went through a breakup and we eventually figured that the best option was for him to buy me out and I would buy somewhere else. The process took so long that I started looking at options for renting and then my mum sent me contact details for this place.
What do you love or hate about your place? I love that I have my own place now and that it is nicely finished. The place was redecorated and the kitchen replaced before I move in. I hate feeling like I can’t put things up on the walls or change things and hate worrying about the impact things might have on my deposit.
How has COVID affected your living situation? I found my current house shortly before lockdown and got the keys a few days before lockdown was announced. I moved in April, on my own with no help. It has been good to have my own space. I share custody of my son so my household bubble still involved my ex but it is nice to have space and time to myself. The buyout of my old place eventually went through a couple of months after I moved. I am happy here though and not in any rush to buy somewhere. I will wait for right thing to come along.
Libby, 24, Junior Doctor, South Wales
How much do you spend on rent?
£350 per month (for half the rent of my house) for a 2 bedroom house.
How did you find your place? Found it on Rightmove. I needed to relocate mid-pandemic to start work as a doctor so found my house (with my boyfriend) in two weeks and wasn’t able to view it before signing the contract!
What do you love or hate about your place? Love: the living room, the short commute to work, the south facing garden (I’ve been living in a flat for three years with no outside space), the reasonable rent (South Wales is pretty cheap). Hate: not being allowed to paint/put up shelves and make it our own, not enough storage space
How has COVID affected your living situation? I had to relocate mid-pandemic and so rented this house without viewing it first! I was very lucky that it is exactly how it looked from the pictures and video tour and the letting agents were really good with answering all our questions.
Danielle, 26, Pharmacist, Newcastle
How much do you spend on rent?
£375pm each with my fiancé
How did you find your place? We feel very lucky as houses to rent in my area go for £8–900 unfurnished, ours was up to rent furnished for £750pm just as our contract was ending at our old flat. Rightmove is the way to go!
What do you love or hate about your place? Love — the space, the area (we are far enough away from the quayside in Newcastle to not get noise, but close enough that a £4 taxi will get us to anywhere in town), and the neighbours! Hate — having to get permission for every single thing we want to do to improve the house — even stuff we know will make it more profitable when we leave.
How has COVID affected your living situation? A little easier as we no longer need 3m house inspections — which although we are super clean, they’re always an absolute nightmare to prep for for a perfectionist like me.
Originally published at https://www.refinery29.com.
