Renters across Great Britain are now spending 40.9% of their income on rent, down from 41.5% a year ago.

The research shows that:across England the figure sits higher at 41.6%, down from 42.2%.

This marginal improvement has largely been driven by stronger wage growth rather than any slowdown in rental costs. 

Across Great Britain, rents have increased by 3.9% over the past year, while earnings have grown at a faster rate of 5.4%, helping to ease the overall affordability burden.

In London, earnings have increased by 6.9% compared to rental growth of just 2.1%, resulting in the largest reduction in the proportion of income required to cover rent (-2.33pp). 

However, the capital remains by far the least affordable region, with renters still spending 49.5% of their income on rent.

A similar trend has been seen across Scotland (-0.87pp), the South East (-0.55pp), East of England (-0.50pp) and Wales (-0.22pp), where earnings growth has outpaced rental increases, resulting in the proportion of income required to cover renting falling year on year.

In contrast, rental growth has outpaced or matched wage growth across a number of regions, pushing affordability in the opposite direction. 

The North East has seen rents increase by 7.9% against earnings growth of 4.4%, driving the largest increase in the proportion of income required to cover rent (+0.87pp). 

The North West has seen a similar pattern, with rental growth of 6.1% outstripping earnings growth of 4.2%, resulting in a +0.55pp increase.

More modest increases have been seen across the South West (+0.12pp), Yorkshire and the Humber (+0.11pp), West Midlands (+0.05pp) and East Midlands (+0.02pp), where rental and wage growth have remained more closely aligned.

Despite these increases, some of these regions remain among the most affordable. The North East continues to see the lowest proportion of income required to cover rent at 26.9%, followed by Wales (28.5%) and Yorkshire and the Humber (28.6%).

The research was conducted by Dwelly.