Lodging with a homeowner is a much more affordable form of accommodation than splitting the cost of renting an equivalent two bed flat with a friend in most of the UK’s towns, according to the latest research from flatsharing website, easyroommate.co.uk.
Easyroommate.co.uk analysed the average cost of renting a two bedroom flat compared to the cost of renting a room in the 50 largest cities and towns around the country.
The research shows that lodgers that in 41 of the UK’s largest towns, renting a room with a live-in landlord (lodging) is cheaper than sharing a rental property.
The UK’s 472,000 lodgers put a total of £2.3bn a year in rent in homeowners’ pockets – compared to the £9.8bn spent in rent each year by the 1.9m who flatshare with non-homeowners.
Jonathan Moore, director of easyroommate.co.uk comments:
“Lodgers can get a much better address for their money in most UK cities than if they rent a flat. In theory their rights are restricted to just their rooms but in practice they can enjoy all the living space too.
"For homeowners, there is always a trade off between the inconvenience of having someone else living in your home, and the financial benefit. But the cost of homeownership is now so high in many cities that homeowners are increasingly looking to rent out spare rooms.
"In these areas, competition amongst live-in landlords is keeping rents much lower than in the wider rental market.”
The biggest differences were to be found in the UK’s larger cities. Central London provided the greatest saving for lodgers, where it is 42% cheaper to rent with a live-in landlord rather than by sharing a tenancy.
The cost of lodging per month in the first two zones of the capital stands at £698 pcm, compared to the £1,201 pcm for someone co-renting a two bedroom flat. Over the course of a year, lodgers are saving £6,036.
With over 108,000 lodgers in London, lodging is saving Londoners more than £655m collectively each year. London lodgers will contribute more than £909m this year to homeowners’ budgets.
York provided the second biggest savings for UK lodgers, where renting a room is 34% (£180 per month) cheaper than sharing a flat. Brighton & Hove and Reading also offered good deals for lodgers, with monthly rental savings of 31% (£127) and 29% (£170) respectively.
Jonathan Moore continued:
“It’s clear that in cities with the strongest rental demand from young professionals and students, lodging provides a much cheaper alternative to co-renting. In central London, lodging for five years would save enough cash to fund a house deposit.”
However, smaller towns in the north of England offered the worst economic option for lodgers. Just one town from the south of the country, Bedford, features in the ten worst towns for lodging.
Lodgers face the biggest losses in Barnsley, where it is 19% more expensive on average to lodge rather than share a tenancy. Oldham provided the second worst value for lodging, with the cost of renting a room 5% more than that of sharing a two bed flat with a friend.
Jonathan Moore said:
“In the north of England, substantially lower house price growth in recent years allowed proportionally more buyers to afford to get onto the housing ladder. This has kept demand for rental accommodation down, limiting rents and making it less worthwhile to lodge.
"This is even more acute in smaller towns. There is also a financial floor to what will make homeowners see renting out rooms as adequate compensation for the inconvenience. With lower costs of homeownership, and lower room rates, fewer homeowners are taking a lodger.”
