"With average rents continuing to rise in most cities, many are having to consider their affordability when choosing a city to live in, including students heading off for their university adventure later this year,"
- Steve Pimblett - Rightmove
Newly released data from Rightmove has shown that Hull has topped the list as the most affordable city in Great Britain to rent.
The average advertised rent in the city of Hull is £799 PCM, the lowest in Rightmove’s analysis of the 50 largest cities. The typical rent in Hull is 48% below the average across Great Britain, which now stands at £1,526 PCM.
A typical monthly rental payment in Hull takes up 26% of the average single monthly earning across Great Britain, compared with 50% nationally. This is halved if two people were splitting the cost of the rent equally together.
Second on the list of Great Britain’s most affordable cities is Carlisle, where the average advertised monthly rent is now £816. Wrexham is third on the list, at £817 PCM.
At the other end, London continues to be the most expensive city to rent in with the average advertised rent of a home reaching a new record of £2,695 PCM.
St. Albans is second on the list at an average of £2,330 PCM, and Oxford is third at £2,041 PCM.
“With average rents continuing to rise in most cities, many are having to consider their affordability when choosing a city to live in, including students heading off for their university adventure later this year,” says Steve Pimblett, Chief Data Officer at Rightmove, “We are seeing rental price growth slowing overall and a better balance between supply and demand.
However, he concludes, "As seen by this data, the picture can look quite different depending on where you’re looking to live, and agents tell us the market is still very busy compared with pre-pandemic norms.”
Angharad Trueman, ARLA Propertymark President, comments: “There has been a real shift in the last few years in terms of rental prices across certain regions and this has proven an underlying force in how people are looking at the market. Proximity to a workplace, for example, has become less of a key factor, as more people are able to remote work and choose where they live.
“It remains imperative that governments across all UK nations focus on boosting the supply of rental homes to help even out prices across the country and make renting a secure aspiration for many people who choose it. This can only be realistically achieved by supporting landlords and encouraging long-term investment within the rental sector.”
