The average UK tenant has spent on average over £40,000 on rent in the last five years, the equivalent of paying a 20% deposit on a first-time buyer home, according to housing charity Shelter.
Its research found that someone paying rent for an average two bedroom home in England would have forked out £41,196 to their landlord since 2011 – just £2,000 less than the sum needed for a 20% deposit on the average first-time buyer home.
Millions of tenants are currently caught in a rent trap, paying thousands a year in housing costs and unable to keep up with ballooning house prices.
Shelter said that a Londoner paying rent on an average two-bedroom property would have paid more than £89,000 in just five years, rising above £100,000 in the boroughs of Hammersmith, Islington, and Camden.
Outside of London, the same story is true in many of England’s biggest cities. In Manchester tenants in an average home would have paid more than £50,000 over five years, while in Bristol its nearly £48,000 and over £32,000 in Sheffield.
Government figures released last month revealed the depth of the problem affecting generation rent. Nearly half (46%) of all 25-34 year olds now rent, compared to just a quarter (24%) 10 years ago.
Shelter is calling on the government to commit to investing in homes which people on ordinary wages can actually afford to rent or buy.
Campbell Robb, Shelter’s chief executive, said: “When just five years of rent could get you the deposit on a house, it’s no wonder England’s renters feel like they’re getting a raw deal, paying through the nose for something they can never call their own.
“Our drastic shortage of affordable homes is leaving millions of people stuck in their childhood bedrooms in a bid to save money, or in expensive and unstable private renting with little hope of ever saving for a home to put down roots in.
“It doesn’t have to be this way – the government can turn things around by investing in homes that people on ordinary wages can actually afford to buy, or rent for the long term.”
According to a recent report by the Social Market Foundation, almost two million young people have been locked out of the housing market since 2001.
Insufficient housing supply was seen as the key underlying factor. The UK will face a shortfall of almost 1.3 million homes by 2026 as a result of increasing demand and inadequate supply growth, which will push up house prices even further.
The Foundation warned that if supply continues to fall short while demand continues to rise, homes will become even more unaffordable.
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It may well be that tenants spend money on rent, the statement that this stops them saving for a deposit is nonsensical. To make sense they would have had to have had the option to stay somewhere else for free. Housing is a service that has to be paid for like any other. The statement you make is akin to me saying I could go on a really nice holiday each year if only I hadn’t had to pay for all the food I ate throughout the year.