New Data Reveals Britain’s Priciest Rental Area Is Outside London, Defying Expectations. – TNT

Whilst London is widely considered the nation’s most expensive area of the rental market, it’s Buckinghamshire that is home to the postcode with the highest average rent in the current market, where tenants are paying almost three times the going rate when compared to the wider average in the South East and 358% more than the British average.

The research comes from Cohab, the property software solution for landlords, which analysed postcode districts across Britain to reveal the most expensive postcodes in each region when it comes to the average monthly cost of renting.

At £5,920 per calendar month (pcm), it costs 279.1% more to rent in Buckinghamshire’s HP9 postcode compared to the wider South East at £1,562pcm and 358.4% more than the British average – the largest premium and the highest average monthly rent in Britain.

London has the second biggest rental price gap, where it costs 149.9% more to rent in the prime postcode of SW7 at £5,438pcm, compared to Greater London (£2,176pcm) as a whole.

At £2,834pcm, Cornwall’s TR11 postcode is the most expensive in the South West commanding a premium of 124.8% versus the wider regional average.

However, whilst the M14 postcode of Manchester – the most expensive in the North West – may boast a lower average monthly rent at £2,280pcm, it commands a higher premium of 126.6% when compared to the average monthly rent for the wider North West.

At the other end of the table, the Swansea postcode of SA2 is home to the most expensive average rent in the region of £1,510pcm. Whilst this sits considerably higher than the wider average for Wales (£935pcm), it’s the smallest premium of all areas of Britain at 61.5%.

The most expensive postcode for renting in your region:

The founder and CEO of Cohab, Saveli Kotz, commented: “While the cost of renting varies across Britain, each region is home to a prime postcode where rents sit significantly higher than that paid by the average tenant.

“In Buckinghamshire for example it costs nearly three times as much to rent than the South East of England, demonstrating how competitive it is for renters. It’s somewhat surprising that even the UK’s prime postcodes in Central London, which are popular with international renters, don’t match up to the area.

“At the other end of the spectrum Wales has the smallest difference between the average rental price and the most expensive postcode, suggesting tenant demand is more equally distributed in the country.

“The research underlines that wherever renters are based there’s likely to be a property available to rent at their price point if they’re willing to travel. If tenants are priced out of one area it’s worth checking a neighbouring region, where there may be a better supply of affordable rental properties to measure up with demand.”