Skyrocketing rents are making single Londoners share rooms

If you’ve ever rented a room in London you’ll know that finding an affordable room to rent here is like winning a million-pound lottery.

The rents in the capital have now become so exorbitant that Londoners are now increasingly sharing rooms.

Over the past two years, house share site SpareRoom.co.uk has seen a 71% increase in searches for room shares.

In London, where 10 people chase every room available, 17% share a bedroom and 5% of these are not couples.

Matt Hutchinson, director of flat and house share site SpareRoom.co.uk, said: “We know many couples are sharing rooms in house and flat shares to save money, but there’s also a rising number of single people sharing rooms now too.

“Few people would choose to share a room, but the harsh reality is that London’s housing crisis means rents are becoming increasingly unaffordable. We’re not just talking about those on lower incomes either – 44% of flatsharers spend over half their salary on rent.

Out of the 12,000 London rooms listed on the site, only three in 10 cost less than £600 per month.

Hutchinson points out that if a renter has only £500 a month to spend, he/she will have an option of choosing from only 14% of rooms available. Under £400 you’ll have just 4% of rooms to choose from.

Nearly half (46%) of rooms currently available on the site cost over £750 per month.

Hutchinson added: “The demise of the living room and other communal spaces is another implication of the housing crisis – one in six shared homes now has no living room, compared to one in ten three years ago and in London, 19% of sharers have no living room. This threatens the social benefits of house sharing, which is a huge shame. Whilst the majority of flatshares advertised on Spareroom have living rooms, we’ve seen ads for properties without more than double in the past two years.”