The rental supply crisis is now most acute in towns as more renters are priced out of cities, according to Q2 2025 research by flat-share site, SpareRoom.
Sale, near Manchester, is seeing the fiercest competition among flat-sharers in the whole of the UK, with 8.9 people searching for every room available. The average room rent here is £637 per month, compared to £689 per month in Manchester – a saving of £624 a year.
Second in demand is West Midlands market town Oldbury, linked to Birmingham by a 12-minute train, but where rents – at £531 per month – are £984 per year cheaper than rents in Birmingham (£631pm).
The Merseyside town of Bootle is the cheapest place to rent in the whole of the UK at £456 per month, and it’s seeing huge demand among renters with 8.6 people searching per room available.
Being driven further out
Those priced out of inner London are driving demand in Twickenham and Aldershot in Surrey where demand is around eight people searching per room available.
Only two cities appear on the list of the highest-demand areas of the UK among renters, further evidence that renting has become so unaffordable in cities, even flat-sharers are being driven further out. Demand has more than doubled since 2019 in Oldbury, Aldershot, Paisley, Sutton Coldfield, and Solihull.
However, some towns may soon become unaffordable to flat-sharers, too. Compare rent increases since 2019 in these highest-demand towns against the average for the whole of the UK (30%) and most have seen higher-than-average rises, with increases in Cannock (69%), St. Helens (65%), and Salford (60%) the highest, and more than double the UK average rent rise.
The table below shows the top ten most in-demand areas of the UK among renters, where more than five people were looking per room available to rent in Q2 2025:
| Area | Ave monthly room rent Q2 2025 | Ave monthly room rent Q2 2019 | Rent change 2019-25 | People searching per room available Q2 2025 | People searching per room available Q2 2019 | |
| 1 | Sale | £637 | £433 | 47% | 8.9 | 9.0 |
| 2 | Oldbury | £531 | £380 | 40% | 8.8 | 3.9 |
| 3 | Bootle | £456 | £351 | 30% | 8.6 | 4.6 |
| 4 | South Shields | £521 | £350 | 49% | 8.5 | 4.6 |
| 5 | Cheadle | £667 | £445 | 50% | 8.4 | 5.7 |
| 6 | Twickenham | £951 | £676 | 41% | 8.3 | 5.9 |
| 7 | Aldershot | £683 | £501 | 36% | 8.0 | 3.8 |
| 8 | Paisley | £548 | £389 | 41% | 7.8 | 3.7 |
| 9 | Margate | £624 | £446 | 40% | 7.7 | 5.6 |
| 10 | Sutton Coldfield | £590 | £456 | 29% | 7.6 | 3.3 |
| Whole of UK | £748 | £576 | 30% | 2.6 | 2.9 |
Zoom out and rental supply across the UK is rising, driven largely by ads – placed by both landlords and agents, and by lodger landlords – for rentals outside of Greater London. However, supply could be impacted by landlords reacting to the Renters’ Rights Bill which begins its final stage in the House of Lords Monday.
Matt Hutchinson, director of SpareRoom, said: “Across the country, rental supply in the flatshare market is still rising but that doesn’t do justice to the picture in suburbia, which is groaning under the weight of demand from renters priced out of city living.
“When renters reach their ceiling of affordability, there isn’t really a choice, they have to move somewhere cheaper. The worry is that demand in these areas is now so high it’s inevitable prices will rise, until average rents are similar to those in the city they originally moved out of. And then where do renters go?”
