What percentage of income should be spent on rent?

Cardo_2

Hi there. I'm moving out of home and would be grateful for some advice.

I'd like to know what percentage of my income should be spent on rent, without overstretching my finances.

I'm moving in with my girlfriend, so will be splitting the rent, and have no debts other than a student loan.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

paulfaz

I wouldn't be happy with more than 30%. Everyone's different some people can survive on £200 a month disposable, some need 1K - depends what your lifesyle is like!

PasturesNew

It depends how much you earn. If you don't earn a lot it can be 40-45% of your takehome pay. If you earn a lot or are sharing it can be 20-30% of your takehome pay.

It also depends on what you expect your lifestyle to be. And how much it costs you to get to work. And if one of you lost their job could the other pay the whole rent?

mlz1413

Try not to exceed 50% of your income for all your bills, rent, council tax, food, travel exps. This will mean you are not finanical stretched.

Thing is that is probably impossible, so best thing to do is work out what you currently spend by filling out Martins Budget Planner, decide if you can live without any of the things you currently spend on and then work out what you can realisticlly afford.

You are very smart to want to work this out before you commit, good luck with your move.

robin_banks

A reasonable benchmatk blz, ours is 45% ish excluding food.

sooz

Conversely, in order to pass a rental credit check, your income should be 30 times the monthly rent, or more.