Over the past 12 months, the price of renting a room in London has dropped by 3% according to the latest numbers from SpareRoom.
At first glance it appears that London is merely following a nationwide trend, but the data, which covers 250,000 listings reveals a different story upon closer inspection. When London is excluded from the overall national figures, the data shows that the average room price has RISEN by 2%.
But why is this?
All the way back in 2017, London was seeing stagnation of rent prices. This was due to an increase in the number of available homes. Plus, being the most expensive region in the country to rent, meant that there was more room for renters to negotiate.
These eye-watering rent prices may have finally backfired altogether and been forced to drop in order to be slightly more affordable.
Meanwhile, in North West England and Northern Ireland, room rental prices have increased by around 3% since this time last year. In spite of this, Northern Ireland still remains the cheapest region to rent in.
At the other end of the spectrum, excluding London, the South East is the most expensive region in the UK to rent at £528pcm, followed by East Anglia at £493pcm and Scotland at £480pcm.
When London is broken down by area, East and West Central are the most expensive at £1,076pcm and £1,007pcm respectively. The NW area has seen the biggest drop across the capital, with a 2% decrease in monthly rents.