The majority of residential tenants in the UK are at or near to their affordability ceiling, new figures suggest.

Landlord services company Canopy has analysed data from 46,000 employed renters – part of its customer base – and found that some 30% of gross (pre-tax) income on rent is typically considered affordable.

However, after tax typical tenants are spending 35.7% of their take-home salary on rent. And one in five tenants spend at least half of their take-home salary on rent. At the higher end, 11.3% spend over 60% and 4.4% spend over 80% of take-home salary on rent.

The North East of England boasts the most affordable cities for renters, with Sunderland and Newcastle upon Tyne (33.7%) both sitting in the top three most affordable cities in the country, joined by Belfast.

Unsurprisingly, London is the least affordable region with tenants typically spending 44.3% of their take-home pay on rent. The South West and South East are close behind.
 

 
Canopy chief executive Chris Hutchinson says: “The average tenant in the UK is now spending over a third of their take-home pay on their share of the rent; in many areas of the UK the average rises higher than 40%. It is sobering to see that some tenants are even spending 80% of their salary on rent.

“Considering these numbers don’t include essentials like groceries, commuting costs and utilities bills, the figures raise serious questions on how feasible saving for a mortgage is for the majority of tenants in this country.

“What is clear is that the market is in a precarious position, in that steps clearly need to be taken to make life easier for tenants, yet further regulation is likely to drive landlords away from the market and leave a smaller pool of properties available for tenants to choose from.”