Room rents outpaced renters' budgets in around half of the UK's 35 largest flatshare cities in Q2 2026, and the gap has been consistent across the country as a whole since the end of 2022, according to data from SpareRoom.
The flatshare platform analysed nearly 240,000 UK room listings alongside room-wanted advertisements posted by those seeking accommodation in Q2 2026 to identify the cities where the affordability gap between asking rents and renters' budgets was widest.
Edinburgh ranked as the most unaffordable major UK city for room renters outside London, with average monthly rents of £834 running £86 ahead of the average flatsharer budget of £748, a shortfall of £1,028 per year.
York and Derby occupied second and third place respectively. In York, rents outpaced budgets by £51 per month, a gap of £611 annually, while Derby flatsharers faced a monthly shortfall of the same amount, adding up to £607 per year.
The ten cities with the largest affordability gaps in Q2 2026, based on SpareRoom's dataset of the 35 biggest flatshare markets by room ad volume, were:
- Edinburgh: average budget £748/month, average rent £834/month, annual shortfall £1,028
- York: £693/month budget, £744/month rent, annual shortfall £611
- Derby: £530/month budget, £581/month rent, annual shortfall £607
- Belfast: £562/month budget, £600/month rent, annual shortfall £456
- Glasgow: £640/month budget, £676/month rent, annual shortfall £429
- Cardiff: £612/month budget, £647/month rent, annual shortfall £421
- Birmingham: £583/month budget, £612/month rent, annual shortfall £346
- Coventry: £539/month budget, £565/month rent, annual shortfall £307
- Leicester: £536/month budget, £561/month rent, annual shortfall £306
- Portsmouth: £621/month budget, £646/month rent, annual shortfall £304
The picture at the national level is similarly stretched. A SpareRoom survey conducted in July 2026 found that just 15.3% of UK renters were spending less than 30% of their income on rent, the threshold widely considered the upper limit of affordability.
At the other end of the scale, 37.8% were spending more than half their pay on housing costs. In the twelve months to July 2026, 32% of UK renters had been forced to move because their rent became unaffordable.
"Edinburgh's room rental market suffers from the festival effect: prices spike cyclically when demand is heightened in the lead up to and over the summer," said Matt Hutchinson, director of SpareRoom.
"But it's also the most expensive city to rent in outside of London, and our data shows many renters just aren't prepared for, or able to meet, the steep prices in Scotland's capital."
Hutchinson said the presence of York and Derby in the top three challenged the assumption that rental costs are more manageable outside major cities. "Sizeable affordability gaps in York and Derby put paid to any expectation that rents will be more affordable in the north of the UK," he said.
"Budgets are, of course, relative to earnings and wages are clearly not matching up with rising living costs. This is a problem across the whole of the UK. For more than three years UK room rents have outstripped budgets, and nothing is being done to protect rental supply and improve affordability."
