UK renters paying £8 per sq ft, £12 in London – ideal flatmate’s Q3, Room Rental Index

The latest Room Rental Index by ideal flatmate has been released for Q3 2019, looking at the cost of renting a room across the UK’s major cities and each London borough. You can find the full index report attached in pdf form, including current average room rentals, the quarter to quarter change, and the cost per square foot, but for any further comment or info, please get in touch.

The latest index shows that: –

  • The average room rental cost across the UK is £584, up 1% quarter to quarter.

 

  • UK room renters are currently paying £8 per square foot.

 

  • The average room rental cost across London is £813 – the highest of all major UK cities.

 

  • Renting a room in the capital costs an average of £12 per square foot, up from £11 at the start of this year.

 

  • At an average cost of £1,025 a room, per month, Westminster is currently the most expensive London borough – a cost of £15 per square foot.

 

  • Aberdeen is the most affordable UK city in which to rent a room costing just £4 per square foot – an average cost of £268 per month.

 

  • London, Nottingham and Bristol have seen the largest quarterly uplifts in room rental prices, while Havering Lewisham and Hillingdon have seen the biggest increases in cost across the capital.

Co-founder of ideal flatmate, Tom Gatzen, commented:

“A mixed bag throughout the third quarter with the cost of renting a room on the up yet again across the majority of UK cities, although some of the more expensive areas of London and the UK have seen the rate of rental growth cool to a degree.

It’s still not clear as to whether the ban on tenant fees has led to a notable increase in rents and if it has, this certainly hasn’t trickled through to the nation’s renters yet.

On the whole, we’re seeing lower rates of rental growth quarter to quarter than we did earlier in the year, but with changes to the tenant fees only impacting new tenancies or renewals, we could be yet to see the widespread surge in rental costs that many are expecting.

While there have been some large uplifts across the nation’s more prominent cities and London’s peripheral boroughs, this increase is more likely to have been driven by tenant demand more than any other factor.”

Properganda PR

National and local media coverage for property businesses. Journo quotes delivered in minutes.

You May Also Enjoy

Breaking News

The UK towns boasting +80% house price growth amid nationwide drop

For the first time since 2023, UK house prices have dropped. However, many areas are bucking the recent news, with strong growth overall in the last 5 and 10 years. The cash house buyers and property experts at Sell House Fast have compiled ‘The Property Prosperity Index’, revealing the best places to buy and sell property…
Read More
Estate Agent Talk

London remains destination of choice for international property wealth

The latest research from London lettings and estate agent, Benham and Reeves, has revealed that London accounts for 43% of all property titles owned by overseas companies across England and Wales, highlighting the capital’s enduring appeal as an international property investment destination. Benham and Reeves analysed the latest Land Registry Overseas Companies Ownership Data to…
Read More
to let sign 2025
Breaking News

First drop in rental supply in three years pushes rents higher

Rental growth set to accelerate to 4–5 per cent by the end of 2026 as higher mortgage rates keep would-be buyers renting for longer, reducing rental supply UK rents are 2.6 per cent higher in the 12 months to July 2026, up from 1.6 per cent in February and are on track to reach 4-5…
Read More
Breaking News

Breaking Property News 13/9/26

Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.   Sourced Living Chooses Genifea AI to support its branch network and its clients Sourced Living, the lettings and estate agency network of Sourced Property Group, has chosen Genifea to handle customer enquiries across its branches — in what is also the London-based platform’s first…
Read More
Rightmove logo
Breaking News

Back-to-school buyer bounce outpaces typical September uplift

New real-time analysis from the UK’s largest property platform Rightmove reveals that buyer demand received a stronger than usual back-to-school boost during the first week of September Buyer demand increased by 5% during the opening week of the month, significantly higher than the average increase of 0.4% seen over the same period during the last…
Read More
Letting Agent Talk

8,500 tenanted homes currently on the market

8,500 tenanted homes currently up for sale as TLP highlights importance of clean client money handovers   More than an estimated 8,500 homes are currently being marketed for sale with tenants in situ across England, according to the latest analysis by The Letting Partnership, presenting landlords with the opportunity to acquire an investment generating rental…
Read More