One of the leading providers in the hyper-competitive deposit alternative niche has made a bid for support from London tenants by saying how much they would save if their agent or landlord ditched traditional deposits.

flatfair has produced a London Underground map looking at upfront costs saved around each tube station by analysing mean rents. 

From this, traditional deposits of five weeks were calculated and compared with the flatfair membership fee, equal to roughly one week’s rent plus VAT. 

The supplier claims the difference between these amounts is the average saving on upfront costs.

In zones 1 to 6 flatfair claims the saving over a traditional deposit would be £1,554 in upfront costs, almost equivalent to the capital’s average monthly rent of £1,665.

A five-week traditional deposit for the average London rent is well over £2,000, equivalent to a month’s pay for those earning £30,000.

Looking at some rents closer to or within central London, the company claims savings could be as high as £2,631

Franz Doerr, founder and chief executive of flatfair, says: “As more people rent in London than ever before, we need to remove the unnecessary burden of traditional rental deposits. There’s over £5 billion in rental deposits locked away when there is absolutely no need. Our cutting edge payment technology can help free this money up, putting it back into the hands of tenants who can save, invest, or spend that money how they see fit.”