Twickenham has been named the UK’s least affordable rental location, with renters needing to find an additional £152 a month, or £1,827 a year, to cover the gap between their budgets and average room rents, according to new research from flatshare site SpareRoom.
Barnet and Stourbridge also feature prominently in the affordability gap list. In Barnet, average rents of £899 a month are £1,361 higher annually than the average renter’s budget, while in Stourbridge, where the average rent is £661, tenants face a £119 monthly shortfall.
Across the UK, other cities with large affordability gaps include Londonderry, Edinburgh and York.
Edinburgh, with average monthly rents of £823 compared with average budgets of £716, is now the second most expensive UK city to rent in after London.
The findings highlight how demand continues to push rents beyond what many flatsharers can afford.
UK rents in Q2 2025 were 24% higher than in the same period in 2019, with average increases in many towns and cities far exceeding that figure.
In West London, average room rents have surpassed £1,000, outpacing the average renter budget of £978.
SpareRoom’s survey of over 6,500 renters in March 2025 found that three quarters are spending more than 30% of their take-home pay on rent, while more than a quarter are spending over half.
In London, eight in 10 renters are spending more than 30% of income on rent, with 28% spending over 50%.
Another survey in August 2025 found that 51% of renters had relied on some form of loan, overdraft, credit card, payday loan, or second income stream in the past 12 months to keep up with payments.
Under 30s were more likely to rely on overdrafts or second jobs, while almost half reported some form of financial help from parents or relatives.
Matt Hutchinson, director of SpareRoom, said: “Rents have been stabilising over the past year which is masking the huge problems people are facing around affordability.
“Flatsharers’ budgets simply aren’t meeting asking prices set by agents and landlords in many parts of the UK.
“That means people are having to lean on parents and relatives, take on second jobs and explore various ways of borrowing to be able to pay their rent each month.
“The fact that over a quarter of under 30s now flatsharing have relied on their parents to be able to start renting in the first place – i.e. with a deposit loan – shows just how hard it is to leave home at all.”
