Huge rise in lodging last month, claims website

A lodger-landlord matching website claims that advertisements for new tenants rose 63 per cent last month over the January 2013 level.

SpareRoom.co.uk says that home owners let out 12,000 rooms to lodgers last month, a record figure which the site puts down to the post-Christmas financial pinch.

Homeowners taking in lodgers on a Monday to Friday only basis have risen by 56 per cent over the past two years, comparing data from January 2012 to January 2014.

Of the most densely populated UK cities, the biggest annual increase in people becoming landlords with lodgers' was in Aberdeen where house prices have experienced high levels of growth almost unheard of outside of London. In Aberdeen, monthly room rents have risen by 11 per cent from £446 to £494 in the past year alone.

Meanwhile Liverpool saw a 41 per cent increase in homeowners taking in lodgers in the past 12 months while Belfast saw lodger numbers up by more than quarter.

SpareRoom is one of the driving forces behind Raise The Roof, a campaign supported by housing charity Shelter. It calls on the government to raise the Rent A Room Scheme tax-free threshold to £7,500 per year. The campaign aims to encourage more homeowners to take in lodgers and ease the pressure on the lettings market.