Yahoo Finance London room rents hit record high of £794
Renting a room in the UK's capital has never been so expensive as the average monthly room rent in London jumped 12% to reach £794 in the first three months of 2022.
The most expensive place to rent a room in the capital was South Kensington/Knightsbridge, with an average monthly rent of £1,384, according to figures from flatshare site SpareRoom.
This was followed by the Chelsea postcode SW3 at £1,278 and West End/Soho (W1) at £1,213.
On the other side of the spectrum, Abbey Wood (SE2) remains the cheapest place to rent a room in London with rents sitting at £567, with Thamesmead SE28 at £586 and Norwood (SE25) at £594 not far behind.
East London remains the most popular place to rent in London, with the three top spots going to the Canary Wharf/Docklands postcode of E14, Shoreditch/Whitechapel (E1) and Bow (E3).
Matt Hutchinson, SpareRoom director, said: "Rents are climbing across the country and are already reaching record highs in the majority of towns and cities. That’s going to be incredibly unwelcome news for renters, many of whom were already financially stretched and will be wondering how they’ll cope with increased rents, alongside a sharp hike in the cost of living.
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"With a substantial proportion of flatsharers having bills included in their rents, this may just be the start. The effects of the price cap rising won’t have kicked in yet and, when the second phase comes into effect in the autumn, just as we’re heading into the colder months, we may well see more records broken."
The London postcodes that saw the biggest increases were W1 (West End/Soho) up 34%, SW3 (Chelsea) up 28% and SW7 (South Kensington/Knightsbridge) up 27%.
In Manchester the average room rent now stands at £531 and at £415 in Liverpool.
Darlington is the cheapest area to rent in the UK, with an average rent of £380, followed by Bootle (£383) and Bradford (£384).
The most expensive rents outside the capital were found in Twickenham (£714), Kingston Upon Thames (£712) and Barnet (£681).
Looking at the UK’s top 50 towns and cities, Sunderland saw the biggest increase in room rents, up 19%, followed by Belfast (16%) and Glasgow (14%).
