An insurance firm claims two thirds of people’s typical budgets are too low to afford the average UK rent of £634 per month.

Admiral says renters are hit the hardest in Aberdeen with 92 per cent of budgets being too low; then comes London and Cambridge on 86 and 83 per cent. The average UK rent for a single room in the UK is £40 more than the average person’s budget.

The analysis also suggests that there are 152 people looking to rent for every 100 available rentals, on average across the UK. But this masks large regional variations – in Salford, for example, Admiral claims for every 100 available rentals there are 1,061 people looking. 

With just 54 renters hunting for a room for every 100 available in Doncaster, that rental market is the least competitive.

Compared to data from similar research in 2021, Admiral claims that renters are increasingly priced out with the percentage of budgets falling below average rental prices increasing to 65.7 per cent from 52.7 per cent.

A statement from the firm says: “Our analysis [shows that] with far more people looking to rent a room in each city than what is currently being advertised on sites such as SpareRoom. The rental market is also being impacted by the growing trend of landlords selling their properties.

“Propertymark research shows that between March 2019 and March 2022, 84 per cent of landlords who removed their property from the rental market did so to sell it.

“In 63 per cent of UK cities analysed, we can see that the majority of single people looking to rent are priced out of the average rental price. On a national level, just over half of renters in England, Scotland and Wales can’t afford the average rental price for a single occupancy room, with London residents most affected by the huge disparity between rent and budget.”