People in their 20s can’t afford to rent in two thirds of the UK – but where are the most expensive areas?
New research has found that renting accounts for 30 per cent of people in their 20's take home pay in 65 per cent of British postcode areas
YOUNG people are struggling to afford the cost of rent in two thirds of Great Britain.
Around 4.7million households rent privately in England – a 74 per cent rise in the last 10 years, according to housing charity Shelter.
But new research from , has found that renting accounts for 30 per cent of people in their 20's take home pay in 65 per cent of British postcode areas.
The findings revealed that an annual income of £24,800 would be needed for the average one-bedroom rental flat in England to become affordable, while £20,700 was needed in Scotland and £17,600 in Wales.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the London borough of Westminster is the region where rent was least affordable.
In the SW1X postcode area, a one-bedroom property would cost £3,500 a month to rent, which is 156 per cent of the average 22- to 29-year-old's salary.
How to haggle with your landlord and bring down your rent
WHEN you first sign your tenancy agreement with your landlord your rent should be agreed either in writing or verbally.
To increase your rent your landlord must send you a section 13 notice which gives you a month's notice in writing telling you how much your rent will be increased by and the date when your rent will go up.
At this stage you should try to talk to your landlord and come to a fair agreement on how much rent you should pay.
Your landlord can only raise your rent if you agree to the increased price.
Matt Hutchinson, communications director for flatsharing website SpareRoom.com said that if you are a good tenant then you've got bargaining power.
"The first thing to bear in mind is that demand is lower at the moment than over the past couple of years.
"That means you’ve got a bit more bargaining power, especially if you’ve been a good tenant, as your landlord won’t want the expense and hassle of having to find another tenant and even potentially face a period with the property empty.
"Failing that, it’s worth seeing if you can get anything thrown in with a rent increase, such as minor bits of redecorating or any bills."
Landbay has a free rent check service to see how much rent you should be paying in your area.
You can find the rent check service
Find out more about how to haggle with your landlord to bring your rent down here.
Spiralling rent costs have forced many people in their twenties to house share with other people in a bid to live in areas with strong job prospects.
Hannah Slater, policy and public affairs manager at campaign group Generation Rent, said: "Unaffordable rents in areas of the country with a strong job markets means that people well into their 20s and 30s, even couples, are having to share with other renters to be able to afford a roof over their head.
"This research shows that high housing costs have made it a lot harder to have the choices over living arrangements that previous generations enjoyed.
"We need to urgently build more affordable homes and look at rent controls that would help move people away from paying unacceptable chunks of their salaries on tiny bedrooms in shared housing."
Outside of London, the areas where rent eats up the largest proportion of young people's salaries is in the IG post code area, which covers Buckhurst Hill in Essex.
Here, the average rent of £1,230 a month takes up nearly three quarters (71 per cent) of young people's take home pay.
In contrast, the most affordable place to rent is the PA28 postcode region covering Argyll and Bute in Scotland.
Here young people need to pay just 15 per cent of their income to afford the average rent of £266.
How quickly should rental repairs be fixed?
UNDERSTANDABLY the time a fault should be fixed depends on the severity of the issue. Here's what you need to know.
Landlord associations generally advise that if there is a "significant risk of danger to the health, safety or security of a tenant" then the issue must be resolved within 24 hours.
Landlords have three working days to resolve problems that "materially affect the comfort or convenience" of residents and up to 28 days for less urgent repairs.
Around 1.85million tenant households have had disrepair in the past four years that their landlord was responsible for and that wasn't fixed within the agreed timescales, according to Citizens Advice research.
RLA policy director, David Smith, said: “With a majority of under 35s living in rented housing, it is young people now facing the consequences of the supply crisis facing the private rental market.
“The Government’s own data shows that across England there was a loss of 46,000 private rented homes in England in 2016/17, a result of tax increases on the sector.
“The demand for homes to rent is not expected to slow, whilst figures from the RLA’s research arm, PEARL, warn of a net loss of 133,000 homes for rent over the next year.
“Given the scale of the housing crisis ministers need to support the development of new homes to rent alongside all other tenures.”
Polly Neate, cheif executive of Shelter, added: “The number of people being forced to rent privately has risen in recent years as house prices have surged out of reach.
“But it remains an often wildly expensive and unstable way to live, with renting families seeing rents creep higher while the possibility of eviction waits around the corner.
“We need the government to start paying attention to renters by giving them the legal right to stay in their home for longer, as well as getting on with building more social housing as an affordable alternative for hard pressed families.”
More on money
These are your rights if your landlord or letting agent wants to increase your rent.
Worryingly, tenants in shared homes ‘face rent rises or eviction’ due changes to rules for landlords - here are your rights.
The Government is planning to introduce three-year rental tenancies in a bid to give renters better protection from landlords.
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