It’s a truth universally acknowledged that renting in London is eye-wateringly expensive, but recent research from SpareRoom has revealed just how much those in the capital need to earn to affordably rent a room here.
Spending no more than 30 per cent of your income on rent is a popular budgeting tactic but, to do this, Londoners would need to be earning £40,000 a year — way beyond the reach of many, especially those starting out in their careers. The median pay in September 2025 for the whole of London was £2,992, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), so a gross income of £35,900.
Out of reach and out of pocket
According to the ONS, the gross median wage of 18 to 21-year-olds working full-time in the UK is £22,001 (£1,833 per month), while it’s £31,200 (£2,600 per month) for 22 to 29-year-olds.
Using the ‘30 per cent rule’, rent budgets should not exceed £550 and £780 per month respectively for these two age groups. Using these figures, even those in the older age group can’t afford to live in London; a monthly budget of £780 is just enough to cover the average rent of a room in the UK, at £753, but is well short of the average rent in London of £998 a month. Annually, they’d have to make up a difference of £2,580.
If you look at median salaries for all under 30s in the UK, their gross pay of £26,600 a year, or £2,217 a month, equates to a monthly rent budget of £665, well below the UK rent average of £753. They would need to ‘find’ an additional £1,056 per year to cover the difference.
These figures also show how high rents are limiting the choice of young people starting out. Using the ‘30 per cent rule’ for 22 to 29-year-olds, and taking their average budget as £780, they wouldn’t be able to live in London, Edinburgh, Oxford, Bath and Cambridge. Younger still, those aged 18 to 21 with a budget of £550 a month are excluded from most major cities in the UK, although they would be able to afford average room rents in areas such as Liverpool, Swansea, Sheffield, Wolverhampton and Aberdeen.
It’s not really surprising therefore that renters in these younger age groups are falling. In 2014, those aged 18 to 24 made up just under a third (32 per cent) of the users on SpareRoom; 10 years later, this figure is nearer to a quarter, at 27 per cent. Even 25 to 34 year-olds are finding the rental market tough; in 2014, they were 45 per cent of the flatshare market but, a decade later, this has dropped to 42 per cent as older renters increase.
Bank of Mum and Dad
It's little wonder then that the Londoners who have managed to fly the nest are still reliant on family for financial support. SpareRoom found that 19 per cent of London renters had been loaned money for a rent deposit, 11 per cent had been loaned money for rent in advance, 13 per cent had had to use a family member as a guarantor, and 13 per cent had had help with monthly rent payments. Only 64 per cent had had no support at all.
For renters under 30 across the UK, the situation was even more stark; over a quarter (26 per cent) had received a loan for a rental deposit to start renting initially, 26 per cent needed a guarantor and almost a fifth (19 per cent) needed help to meet monthly rent payments. Over half (51 per cent) admitted needing help in some way when it came to meeting the financial demands of renting.
“In reality, the 30 per cent affordability rule has been unrealistic for a long time. When rents are 40 per cent or even 50 per cent of income, as is more common today, affording them is challenging and saving for a deposit is out of the question,” says Matt Hutchinson, director of flatshare site SpareRoom. “This doesn’t just delay life plans. If you can’t meet unexpected costs outside of normal expenditure, then you’re more prone to debt… It’s not only sky-high rents that exclude more under 30s today; there are other barriers to entry. Not everyone can save a deposit equivalent to five weeks’ rent and many parents can’t afford to help either.”
