Durham is the most affordable city for tenants in the UK, requiring just 21% of monthly salaries to be put towards rent.
Affordable cities tend to be in the North, as others include Hull (23%), Stoke-on-Trent, Derby and Carlisle (all 24%).
At the other end of the scale, Oxford is the least affordable city to rent in, where 66% of salaries are needed to be put towards rent.
The one exception to this North-South divide is Manchester, which is the 8th least affordable city, with an income to rent ratio of 39%.
Jason Harris-Cohen, managing director of Openpropertygroup.com, said: “The North continues to dominate the most affordable cities except for Manchester.
“I am surprised that Manchester is considered a least affordable city, albeit the city is highly sought after from property buyers and renters, and this would naturally increase rents with supply and demand imbalances
“I am noticing constraint supply of rental properties as numerous macro factors have prompted landlord to obtain vacant possession of their properties and cease the tenancies.
“Some of the factors stimulating these problems are the current recession, COVID-19, increased taxation, new regulations and unemployment or reduced earnings, which may necessitate the need for landlords to release equity from their properties.
“Despite the sales market being challenging, the rental market has remained buoyant and constraint availability, thus keeping rental prices strong.”
Open Property Group recommended for tenants not to spend more than 30% of their gross salaries on rent to maintain an adequate standard of living.
