Low cost of living in Yorkshire

According to flat sharing website Easyroommate.co.uk, Poole, in Dorset, is the most expensive place to live, followed closely by London. Flat sharers in Poole face forking out £398 every month, representing 26.8% of their salaries, while Londoners pay an average of £520, or 26.2% of their net monthly income.

The typical room rent is £365 per calendar month – 21.9% of the average UK net monthly income of £1,665.

In Yorkshire, Hull was revealed as the most affordable with rents at £255 a month or 18.6% of a tenant’s salary, Huddersfield was £300 or 18.7%, Leeds was £301 or 19.0%, Sheffield was £311 or 19.4% and York was £330 or 20.4%. Blackpool in Lancashire came fourth on the “least affordable” towns and cities list, with typical rents standing at £325 - swallowing up a quarter of incomes.

Yorkshire could be considered the cheapest county for tenants, with cities including York, Leeds and Sheffield making the top 10.

Typical rents in Newport stand at £280, £85 cheaper than the national average and costing just over 18% of take home pay.

Jonathan Moore, director of Easyroommate.co.uk, said: “With the economy’s recovery looking sluggish at best, and the ongoing mortgage famine driving growing demand for limited rental space, rent increases will continue to outstrip salary growth for the foreseeable future.”

The survey, which used Office for National Statistics data and 15,000 room adverts listed on the Easyroommate website, found that flat share rents are rising at nearly 5% per year.

This compared with annual pay growth of 2.8%, meaning flat sharers face spending 22.9% of their take home wage on rents next year. Renters could be forced to part with a third of their income by 2020 if current trends continue, the report found.