Using nationwide stats on rent spending, our team of experts calculated the rent you can possibly afford based on your income. In this article, you can learn how much other people spend, and calculate what you might be able to afford based on these stats.

Housing Costs and Affordability

The average English household that rents privately spends 34% of their collective income on rental payments each month (an average rent of £1,146 per month). However, this number ranges from less than 25% to 50% or more for some people, depending on age, region and income level. Let's look at how much people spend on rent across the UK, as well as by age and for different types of households.

Rent Affordability by UK Region

Renters in the North West spend the smallest proportion of their income on rental payments each month: 25.25%, which is nearly 9 percentage points less than the average in England.

In contrast, renters in London spend the highest proportion of their income on rental payments each month: 45.6%, which is nearly 12 percentage points more than the average in England.

When calculating your budget, also factor in the cost of rent fees and the cost of contents insurance, which is important for protecting your belongings against perils like fire, flood and theft (as these aren't covered by your landlord's insurance policy).

Rent Affordability by Income Level

Households earning lower incomes tend to spend a higher proportion of their income on rent. For example, households earning under £16,832 of gross (pre-tax) income spend an average of 62.99% of their income on rent. On the other hand, typical highest earners spend under 17% of their income on rent.

Rent Affordability by Age

Another way to understand housing affordability is using the 40/30 ratio (also known as the 30/40 rule), which defines housing stress as occurring when a household in the bottom 40% of the income distribution spends more than 30% of its gross income on housing costs.

This metric delivers the number of households in the 40/30 situation - that is, those with lower incomes spending a high proportion of that income on rent. The largest number of households in this situation fall in the ten years from 25 - 34 years old:

How Much Should You Spend on Rent?

Each household is unique in terms of income levels and the amount of that income they allocate towards rent. To help you quickly see what different income/rent allocations mean for you (in terms of how much monthly rent you can afford), we ran the figures across a range of income levels and rent/income proportions. Look up your household income or salary in the table and chart below to see what different monthly rents mean in terms of affordability.

These figures can be a useful quick guide when determining how much you should spend on rent.

Should You Spend 30% of Your Income on Rent?

It depends. While the average privately-renting household spends 32.8% of their total income on rent, you might spend more or less depending on your circumstances. For example, younger adults who are at the lower-end of the pay scale are likely to see a higher proportion of their income go towards housing costs. Even your region makes a difference - in an area like London where real estate is so expensive, higher rental prices mean renters spend a larger proportion of their income on rent.

Factors like age, income level and region can therefore all have a bearing on rental affordability for you. It's certainly good to have an idea of the percentage of income you spend on rent and how that compares to others in your situation. And to keep these figures in mind before signing up to a new lease. The higher the percentage, the less affordable your rent is - and the less money you have to pay for other household budget items like food and transportation.

Methodology

To arrive at the figures in this study on rental affordability, we analysed data from the English Housing Survey 2023-24 and 2024-25 from Gov.uk. We used average (mean) figures for private renters, inclusive of housing support.