Shared living listings are currently worth £8m per month
New insight from COHO, the HMO management platform, reveals that there is almost £8m of monthly rental income sitting on the shared living market in England right now, with London and the East Midlands currently home to the largest amount of dormant value. But this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the potential returns of being a shared living landlord.
COHO’s analysis of shared living rental listings* shows that there are currently an estimated 13,663 shared living rooms available for rent in England. With the average monthly shared living rent price standing at an estimated £578 per room, this means that right now there is more than £7.9m in monthly rental income sitting on the market.
London alone has some 2,806 shared living rooms available to rent, equivalent to 20.5% of the nation’s total stock. With an average price of £878 per month, the combined income potential of the capital’s current listings is almost £2.5m per month.
London is followed by the East Midlands where 2,367 available rooms and an average monthly rent price of £524 means there is a total monthly income potential of over £1.2m sitting on the region’s market.
The South East’s shared living market also boasts around £1.2m of monthly rental income tied up in its current listings, followed by the West Midlands (£969,000), North West (£717,000), Yorkshire & Humber (£611,000), South West (£563,000), East of England (£524,000), North East (£223,000).
COHO Founder and CEO, Vann Vogstad, commented:
“The shared living sector holds enormous potential for landlords, a lot of which remains largely, and unnecessarily, untapped. This latter fact is genuinely exciting because shared living is evolving. The old image of overcrowded HMOs with mismatched furniture and clashing housemate personalities is being left in the dust. In its place, we’re seeing a new wave of high-quality, community-focused homes that appeal to everyone from young professionals and couples all the way through to people in their 40s, 50s and beyond: it turns out nobody outgrows wanting good company.
Landlords who lean into this shift and offer more than just a room – think stylish interiors, functional spaces, and properly considered housemate compatibility – are not only likely to see stronger returns, but also happier tenants who stay in the property for longer. When you create a home that people actually enjoy living in (and housemates they don’t want to hide from), everyone wins, as shown by our groundbreaking State of Shared Living 2025 report which shows renters will pay substantially more to ensure they’re living with people they get on with.
This is more than a financial opportunity for landlords, it’s a chance to reimagine shared living as something people actively choose, not settle for. The sector is on the rise and we are seeing a real differentiation now being made between what we call Crisis HMOs (the sort of shared properties that the tabloids like to stigmatise at any given opportunity) and proper shared living which sees people of all ages choosing to live in a great home with great company. The demand for the latter is stronger than ever, and an increasing number of landlords are now adapting to stay.”
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