Living in an inner London flat share used to be a rite of passage for 20- or 30-somethings, wanting easy access to their workplace, not to mention the nightlife and entertainment the city had to offer.
Whether they were sharing with university mates, school friends or total randoms, being in a flat share has always been a great way to live centrally, without paying out huge amounts in rent. Until now.
New research by SpareRoom has found that flat sharers, priced out of popular, inner London locations, such as Clapham, Walthamstow and Hackney, are now looking to the suburbs, as well as nearby seaside and market towns, for affordable accommodation.
According to Zoopla, rents across the UK have gone up 21 per cent in the last three years, with London seeing some years of 10-17 per cent increases.
The average rent in the capital is now £2,166 per month, well beyond the budgets of many flat sharers. Hybrid working also means sharers can spend longer commuting into town as they don’t need to be in the office five days a week.
The data identified Mortlake as the highest climber between when it came to flat share searches.
The suburb, between Kew and Barnes, and in the borough of Richmond-upon-Thames, saw a whopping 85.3 per cent increase in interest on SpareRoom’s website between 2023 and 2024.
There’s plenty to recommend it, with fast trains into London Waterloo, taking just 23 minutes, and the River Thames within walking distance. Monthly room rates are also £825 per month, £157 below the London average.
Chadwell Heath, near Romford, was another new hotspot and saw a 54.1 per cent increase in searches from flat sharers, drawn by the average monthly rents of £760. This area has benefitted from being on the new Elizabeth Line, which gets you into Tottenham Court Road in 31 minutes.
A Market For Market Towns
Also on the list was Saffron Walden, a market town in Essex, with interest up 53.3 per cent and an average rent of £675.
This town is popular for its rural setting and Medieval buildings. Its train links go into London’s Liverpool Street in just 55 minutes, and it has good access to Cambridge and Stansted Airport.
Other market towns featured included Cirencester in Gloucestershire, with searches up 48 per cent, Strood and Faversham in Kent, up 41.4 per cent and 23.5 per cent respectively, and Chertsey in Surrey, which was up 40.5 per cent.
Coastal towns are also increasingly popular with flat sharers. Lowestoft in Suffolk has seen interest increase by 29.8 per cent and, with rents of £582 on average, you can see why.
While there’s no direct train to the capital, if you change at Ipswich, you can get to London in 2 hours and 40 minutes.
Leigh-on-Sea, in Essex, has a much easier commute, taking just 45 minutes into London Fenchurch Street. This area has average rents of £750, and searches have increased 15.2 per cent according to the data.
Similarly, West Sussex’s Shoreham-by-Sea has monthly rents of £727 and flat sharer searches increased by 27.8 per cent. The train into London Victoria takes 1 hour 13 minutes.
What’s more, this migration to the suburbs isn’t just a London phenomenon. Searches for Ashton-under-Lyne, a well-connected Manchester commuter town near the M60, have increased 73 per cent, while Shawlands and Gosforth, suburbs close to the city centres of Glasgow and Newcastle, were also in the Top 30 places with increased search volumes.
Rents eating into budgets
SpareRoom also questioned over 6,500 flat sharers about the proportion of their income that goes on rent.
The research found 75 per cent were spending over 30 per cent of their take-home pay, with 26 per cent spending over a half.
With rent being their biggest outlay, it’s little wonder flat sharers are expanding their search areas to the London suburbs and beyond, in an attempt to save money.
“Area search increases are a good gauge of where the rental market is heading. What these are signalling is a migration from city centres to market towns, commuter hubs, suburbs and the seaside,” says Matt Hutchinson, director of flat share site SpareRoom.
“This is partly enabled by hybrid and remote working, but is also being driven by a lack of affordable rented accommodation in cities.
“Although average room rents in some parts of the UK are showing signs of stabilisation, rents are still a very long way from being affordable. The price tag on city living is moving further out of reach.”
