UP to four months of renters income is being “swallowed up” by landlords every year, campaigners have warned.
Renters in England are typically facing their “cost of rent day” around now, according to Generation Rent and the Renters’ Reform Coalition.
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They said the day marks the point in the year at which, on average, all of a renter’s annual income to that point is swallowed up by payments going to their landlord.
This was calculated by correlating the average percentage of income spent on rent with the same proportion of the calendar year.
Calculations used Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures which indicate that private renters on a median average household income could expect to spend around 36% of their income on an average-priced rented home in England.
Renters in some major cities face a longer wait until their cost of rent day, according to the calculations, with London renters facing a wait until June 2 and Bristol renters waiting until June 13 typically.
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In the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the cost of rent day is not until September 26, according to the analysis.
Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent, said: “High rents trap people in homelessness and suck money out of local communities.
“It’s not right that over four months of our income every year is being swallowed up by landlords.”
Reforms introduced by the Government in April in England have given private tenants a range of stronger protections, including fairer rent rules, with landlords only able to raise rents once a year and tenants able to challenge hikes they believe are unfair.
The Renters’ Rights Act also signals the end of section 21 “no fault” evictions, meaning private landlords will not be able to evict tenants without a valid justification.
Clara Collingwood, director at the Renters’ Reform Coalition, said: “While section 21 evictions have finally been banned in England, for many renters unaffordable rent increases will have exactly the same effect, forcing people out of their homes and communities.
The campaigners quoted a renter in London who said: “Both my husband and I are working full-time, I even work another job on the weekends, but we have no money left over at the end of each month.
“The fairytale of working hard to be able to buy a home is gone.”
The research was released as a separate report from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) estimated that 2.4million households in the UK’s private rented sector are facing unaffordable housing costs.
The IPPR warned this could grow to 2.5 million by the end of the current parliament.
Three-quarters of working-age renters with affordability issues are in working households, it estimated.
Unaffordable housing costs were defined as households spending 30% or more of their post-tax, post-benefits income on rent.
The report argued that recent global shocks, such as inflation and rising interest rates, have been passed from landlords directly onto renters.
The think-tank recommended that rents could be stabilised with annual rent increases limited by a “double lock” linked to whichever is lower out of inflation or wage growth.
Dr Maya Singer Hobbs, senior research fellow at the IPPR, said: “Millions of renters are being pushed to the brink by a housing market that simply isn’t working for them.
A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “Our Renters’ Rights Act is giving millions of tenants stronger rights and more security in their homes.
“That includes stronger powers to challenge rent increases that are above market rate, meaning they can live without fear of their landlord unfairly hiking rent.”
