Average tenancy deposit exceeds £1,500 in major cities, Dlighted claims

The average tenancy deposit paid by tenants in Britain’s largest cities now stands at £1,057, with deposits for properties in London and Edinburgh the most expensive in the country, fresh analysis from Dlighted has found.

The deposit-free renting firm claims that the average tenancy deposit in the UK’s 20 biggest cities currently stands at £1,407 – rising to £1,536 if London is included.

Given that Dlighted wants to encourage more landlords and tenants to use its insurance backed deposit-free renting solution, the company’s founder and anti-deposit campaigner, Ajay Jagota, is keen to point to a new study by Aviva which shows that a quarter of families in the UK have less than £95 in savings. Naturally, this suggests that many people cannot afford the money required to pay for the tenancy deposit in addition to a month’s rent up front when taking out a new tenancy.

Jagota said: “Landlords and letting agents have really got to ask themselves whether it’s good business to ask tenants to pay sixteen times their total life savings to become their customers, when zero deposit renting using deposit replacement insurance gives them almost 400 times as much protection against unpaid rent, property damage.”

Dlighted’s data shows Edinburgh (£2,631) and Brighton (£2,589) to be the most expensive cities to move home outside of London, where the average tenancy deposit currently stands at £3,015, followed by Manchester (£1,834), Cardiff (£1,825) and Leeds (£1,814).

Hull and Bradford (£684) are the cheapest places in the UK to move house, followed by Stoke (£797), Sunderland (£855) and Derby (£891). 

The League table for the highest deposit costs in Britain’s biggest cities is as follows.

London (£3,015).

Edinburgh (£2,631)

Brighton (£2,589)

Manchester (£1,834)

Cardiff (£1,825)

Leeds (£1,814)

Coventry (£1,702)

Bristol (£1,617)

Birmingham (£1,449)

Newcastle (£1,416)

Plymouth (£1,283)

Liverpool (£1,224)

Leicester (£1,217)

Glasgow (£1,205)

Sheffield (£1,170)

Swansea (£1,148)

Derby (£891)

Sunderland (£855)

Stoke (£797)

Bradford/Hull (£684)

Jagota commented: “Doing things this way [by taking a security deposit] doesn’t just make it harder to find tenants, by forcing them into debt or financial dire straits just to become your customers it makes it harder to keep them too.

“Dlighted is the only deposit free renting firm where renters don’t pay a penny – unless they actively decide to take out one of our low-cost policies. But this doesn’t just benefit them – it benefits their landlords and letting agents too.”

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