Room rents in Stockport have overtaken those in Manchester, according to the latest rental index from flatshare website SpareRoom.
The average room in Stockport now costs £717 a month, compared with £685 in Manchester, after a 10.4% year-on-year rise that was the biggest in the UK in the third quarter of 2026.
Across the UK, the average room rent reached a record £769 a month, up 1% on a year earlier, and rents hit new highs in seven of the nine regions. Supply moved the other way, with room rental supply down 4.7% year on year.
Twenty-one towns and cities recorded rent rises of 3% or more. Gloucester ranked second behind Stockport at 7.7%, a rise that may reflect commuters looking for cheaper alternatives to Bristol (£746 a month) and Cheltenham (£651). Warrington (7.4%), Preston (4%) and Bolton (3.1%), all within easy reach of central Manchester by rail, also featured among the biggest risers.
A shortage of rooms and a 79.1% jump in demand pushed room rents in Exeter up 4.5% year on year. Nearby Exmouth recorded the same increase in demand.
Room rents and demand in market towns
Bootle, on Merseyside, has the strongest renter demand in the UK, with 16 people enquiring per room available, against a national average of 2.3. Rising demand, however, signals where rents are most likely to climb next, and 10 towns and cities saw demand grow by more than 50% year on year in the third quarter. The top three are all market towns.
Renter demand in Chesham, a Buckinghamshire market town on the Metropolitan line and less than an hour from London, almost doubled (+97.6%), the biggest increase in the UK. There are now 6.5 people enquiring about every room, up from 3.3 a year earlier.
Demand rose 87% in Kettering, Northamptonshire, where rents sit below £600 a month and a high-speed rail link reaches London St Pancras. Barnstaple in North Devon ranked third (+82.1%), with the average room rent at £627 a month.
Near the coast, short-term holiday lets can absorb supply that would otherwise house residents, which pushes rents up and makes flatsharing the affordable choice for tenants who would otherwise be priced out.
Redcar (79.8%), Carshalton (79.3%), Exeter and Exmouth (both 79.1%), Teddington (72.7%), Accrington (65.2%) and Sheerness (57.6%) completed the top 10.
“The rental market has been rattled by landlords reacting to the Renters’ Rights Act, and flatsharers are now contending with dwindling supply and record-high rents, in the middle of a cost of living crisis,” said Matt Hutchinson, director at SpareRoom.
“As rents increasingly outstrip what people can afford, the way people rent is changing. Some renters are chasing value further afield enabled by flexible working, while others are living where they want to, but they’re now sharing instead of renting solo.
"That’s why flatsharing is no longer an inner-city phenomenon; it has spread to historic market towns, seaside communities, and just about every corner of the UK.”
