UK rental housing less affordable than in 2019, ONS says

“Rent is now less affordable than it was in 2019; however, it has been broadly stable for the last two years,” the ONS said.

The data was based on figures from housing data company Dataloft, which the ONS said it was now publishing as part of its weekly set of experimental economic indicators.

The figures cover about 40% of Britain’s private-sector rental market, and are based on 30,000 new private-sector tenancy agreements signed by 50,000 tenants with annual incomes between 10,000 pounds and 500,000 pounds ($12,444-$622,200).

Tenants who declared an annual income of less than 10,000 pounds likely had another source of money so were excluded from the data as it could have skewed the median ratio of rent to declared income, the ONS said.

Source: Reuters