Rent Freedom Day 2018

We’ve researched average rents and earnings across the UK, to bring you Rent Freedom Day: the day of the year when you earn enough to pay off your annual rent.

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What is Rent Freedom Day?

Until Rent Freedom Day, all the money the average renter earns is going towards their rent for the year.

Rent Freedom Day is the day on which the average renter earns enough money to pay their annual rent, assuming one person renting a one-bed property. It is an indication of the affordability of renting in a given area.

UK & Regional Rent Freedom Day Dates

UK:                                    30^th June

London:                             14^th September

UK (excl. London)             21^st April

The results are pretty depressing. A UK tenant earning the average income and paying the average rent for a one-bed property has to wait until 30^th June to earn enough take-home pay to cover their rent.

That means 50% of the average renter’s take-home pay goes to rent, unless they decide to move in with their partner, or share a property with other households.

It is Londoners who have longest to wait before earning their annual rent, taking until the 14^th September to overcome their rental costs. If we exclude London, then Rent Freedom Day for the rest of the UK comes right down to 21^st April.

North/South Divide

Elsewhere, Southern English cities performed worse than their Northern counterparts, with Southampton, Bristol and Oxford all in the bottom five.

In Scotland, tenants in Edinburgh have to wait until 1^st June to be free from rental costs. Renters in Cardiff have it slightly better, seeing Rent Freedom Day on 16^th May.

Rural areas and cities in the North have the most affordable rent. Renters in rural areas like Northumberland, Shropshire and Lincolnshire earn their annual rent by mid-April. Meanwhile, the most affordable place to rent is Bradford, where Rent Freedom Day is 5^th April.

 

 

Ranking	Location	Rent Freedom Day	Average Monthly Rent (£)	Average Annual Post-Tax Income (£)
1	Bradford	05-Apr	375.05	17,233
2	Northumberland	06-Apr	389.29	17,848
3	Lincolnshire	11-Apr	393.33	17,065
4	Sunderland	17-Apr	430.99	17,600
5	Shropshire & Mid Wales	19-Apr	439.59	17,599
6	Liverpool	20-Apr	455.31	18,078
7	Newcastle	29-Apr	477.67	17,618
8	Leeds	02-May	530.36	19,079
9	Sheffield	02-May	500.53	17,986
10	Devon	03-May	475.40	16,918
11	Norfolk	07-May	499.76	17,282
12	Leicester	15-May	503.66	16,338
13	Cardiff	16-May	592.41	19,146
14	Nottingham	20-May	515.66	16,154
15	Manchester	20-May	560.11	17,505
16	Birmingham	22-May	591.71	18,198
17	Glasgow	26-May	610.87	18,286
18	Southampton	01-Jun	639.55	18,403
19	Edinburgh	01-Jun	702.56	20,199
20	Bristol	25-Jun	772.09	19,231
21	Oxford	27-Jul	994.97	20,988
22	Central London	10-Sep	1413.52	24,496
23	London	14-Sep	1348.94	23,028

Notes on the Data

This data uses the average personal income by area as supplied by the ONS. After-tax salary is approximate and assumes no student loans and age<69. Daily income is per calendar day of the year, not working/week day. Take-home pay after tax is calculated by the Salary Calculator.

It uses OpenRent’s average rental data for one-bed properties (excluding studios and rooms in shared accommodation).

It should be noted that renters are much more likely to be in the bottom two income quintiles than mortgagers or owner occupiers. Therefore, the ‘real’ Rent Freedom Day could be later than these results show.

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