How much rent to pay?

thepelican

This is my first post, so please go easy!

I am interested to find out how much people are spending on rent. How much rent do others pay as a proportion of take-home salary? What is a reasonable figure in / out of London?

I live in London and pay 40% of my after-tax salary on rent (excluding c. tax and bills, and student loan deductions). Is this too much?

Thanks!

PasturesNew

While I was "working" my basic rent was 35% of my takehome. It was the smallest/cheapest place available so no chance to reduce that.

Now I am not working, but doing a spot of home typing and earning money online (as opposed to signing on, which I never do), in December my rent is over 50%.

I've never been to London so know nothing of its prices really.

fc123

33% is said to be "the comfort zone".

flower_72

I am not in London either and spend a 1/3 of my wages in rent... The most I have ever paid I must say. I'll be hunting for a cheaper place as soon as my contract here is over.

MERFE

we pay 36% of oh take home pay in rent, in the south east outside london and could do with somewhere bigger, no way to reduce it without some serious overcrowding.

Melissa177

40% seems like a lot everywhere else in the country except London. I think 40% is sort of the "top end" of the scale.

That said, a small one bed flat in London rents for about 900/month, minimum. An average salary is 32K - around 1800 a month. That is 50% - meaning that most singletons on an average salary can't even afford to rent a tiny one bed flat, and thus have to flat share. Go figure!

Mr_Bear_2

we shall be paying just over 30%

dys

I pay 22% of take home on a 2 bed flat in the midlands. I think 40% of take home is pretty typical for London, I have heard of people paying 60%+

Horace

I live in Birmingham and when working (made redundant) had £995 take home pay each month and out of that I paid £525 rent for unfurnished 3-bedroom flat. Still have the flat but now on JSA and HB but rent is still paid.

My OH lives in Kennington near the Oval in a large 3-bed mansion flat dunno how he does it but he only pays £52 per week for it but I have a feeling that his dad has the lease and his father is loaded but tight with it (so tight, he won't decorate any of his properties plus you can't have good stuff because there's thieves out there.)

thepelican

Thank you all for your responses. It is good to get an idea of what a typical spend is, given that rent / mortgage payments are a significant proportion of monthly outgoings...

Bargain_Rzl

Hi, I'm in London and my outgoings are around 30% of my take-home pay. I was fortunate to get into an affordable housing scheme (shared ownership), otherwise it would be 45%+ or house-sharing.