Least and most affordable places to rent in England named in new official data

Rent has remained unaffordable in England, having been so since records began, the latest official figures show.

The typical private sector renter, on a typical wage in England, paid a figure deemed to be unaffordable by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Renters on a median income – the midpoint between the highest and lowest – paying to live in a median-priced rented home in England spent more than 34.2% of their income on rent.

Money latest: Bus fare cap to rise 50%

Paying anything more than 30% of income on rent is considered unaffordable, the ONS said.

However, those living in London paid nearly 40% of their earnings on rental payments in the year up to March 2023 – the most recent period for which data is available.

More regions had unaffordable rents than a year earlier, as the South East and North West joined London in costing people more than 30% of incomes – at 31.9% and 31.6% of incomes respectively – on rent, the ONS said.

Despite this, there’s been no broad change in affordability, the ONS said.

On the whole, rents in England have been unaffordable since these records began being published in 2015.

Wales, however, has had affordable rent for the eight years covered by the data, with 27.2% of median income spent on median rent.

More than a hundred local areas in England and Wales had unaffordable rents, the ONS data showed, the lowest number since such records began in 2015.

The most affordable area to rent was in North Lincolnshire (with 18.8% of median income going on the media rent), while the least affordable was Kensington and Chelsea (at 52.2% of median income).

The local areas deemed least affordable in each region were urban centres such as London, Manchester, Brighton and Hove, Bristol, and Bath, the ONS said.

Rent expenditure does not include property service charges or rents paid for by housing benefits.

The majority of people in the UK are renters, according to Sky News census analysis, though private renters only account for 20% of the population.