The most affordable vs most expensive places to live in the new decade

With January being a popular month for a fresh start, SpareRoom explored the cheapest and most expensive places to rent in London and the UK.

Its latest rental index – which compares average room rents from Q4 2018 to Q4 2019 – reveals that the average UK room rent (excluding London) has increased by 2% compared to the same period the previous year.

However, when London is included, rents are down 3% across the UK.

Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands between England and France, is currently the most expensive place to rent in the UK outside London (£784), while Galashiels, a town in the Scottish borders, is the cheapest place to rent in the UK (£266).

Regionally speaking, North West England and Northern Ireland have seen the largest rent increases over the past year (3%). However, even with this rise, Northern Ireland continues to be the cheapest region to rent in the UK at £365.

At the other end of the scale, the South East currently holds the top spot for the most expensive region in the UK to rent a room (£528), followed by East Anglia (£493) and Scotland (£480).

Taking a closer look at the capital, South East London is still the cheapest area to rent (avg. £727) and unsurprisingly, West Central and East Central top the most expensive postcode districts in London at £1,076 and £1,007 respectively.

Meanwhile, the NW postcode district has experienced the biggest drop across the capital, down 2%, while EC has seen the biggest increase, up 5%. EC3 (Aldgate) has witnessed the highest rise in rent across the whole city, up a whopping 20% to £1,082.

When it comes to popularity, East London wins hands down, with the likes of Shoreditch (E1), Canary Wharf (E14) and Bow (E3) revealed as the busiest flatshare areas in London.

Below shows the most expensive and least expensive areas to rent in the UK in Q4 2019:

You can view further details on rent changes across the last year here.