Using average income salary and rental price data for cities, the data shows that Durham is the most affordable city to rent in the UK for the second year running. Renting a property in Durham requires just 21% of your monthly salary going towards rent. In 2019, 23% of your salary would be expected to be put towards rent in Durham.
The northern cities continue to top the ‘most affordable’ charts with Hull only requiring you to spend 23% of your salary on rent. Close behind are Stoke-on-Trent, Derby and Carlisle where you’re required to spend only 24% of your salary on rent!
At the other end of the scale, Oxford has been crowned 2020’s ‘least affordable city to rent in’, where 66% of your salary is needed to be put towards rent. In 2019, the most unaffordable city to rent in was Brighton, which this year, now sits in 4th position.
The trend continues with the southern cities appearing high on the ‘least affordable’ chart. Renting in Exeter requires 55% of your monthly salary and in both City of Westminster and Brighton, you will be expected to spend 53% of your salary on rental payments.
Jason Harris-Cohen, Openpropertygroup.com Managing Director, said:
“The North continues to dominate the most affordable cities except for Manchester. I am surprised that Manchester is considered a least affordable city, albeit the city is highly sought after from property buyers and renters, and this would naturally increase rents with supply and demand imbalances
"I am noticing constraint supply of rental properties as numerous macro factors have prompted landlord to obtain vacant possession of their properties and cease the tenancies. Some of the factors stimulating these problems are the current recession, COVID-19, increased taxation, new regulations and unemployment or reduced earnings, which may necessitate the need for landlords to release equity from their properties.
"Despite the sales market being challenging, the rental market has remained buoyant and constraint availability, thus keeping rental prices strong.”
