The UK’s rental supply crisis is deepening in towns, as growing numbers of renters are priced out of major cities, according to Q2 2025 data from flatshare platform SpareRoom.
Suburban hotspot Sale, located just outside Manchester, now tops the list for the most competitive flatshare market in the country, with 8.9 people vying for every available room. Despite the demand, Sale offers relative affordability, with average room rents at £637 per month — saving renters around £624 annually compared to nearby Manchester (£689 per month).
Next on the list is Oldbury, a market town in the West Midlands just 12 minutes by train from Birmingham. Here, average monthly rents are £531, making it £984 per year cheaper than Birmingham’s £631 average — a difference that’s fuelling strong demand.
In Bootle, Merseyside, demand remains high even though it’s currently the cheapest place to rent in the UK, with average room rents at just £456 per month. The town is seeing 8.6 people competing per room, reflecting its appeal to cost-conscious renters.
The affordability squeeze is also being felt beyond London, with areas like Twickenham and Aldershot in Surrey experiencing intense demand. Both towns are seeing around eight renters per available room, largely driven by those unable to afford inner London prices.
As urban rents continue to climb, towns with good transport links and more affordable rents are bearing the brunt of a rental market under pressure — with no signs of easing demand.
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 flatsharers 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 flatsharers 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.
Matt Hutchinson, director of SpareRoom, commented: “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?”
The table below shows the 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 |
| 11 | Barnet | £899 | £615 | 46% | 7.5 | 4.3 |
| 12 | Smethwick | £557 | £424 | 31% | 7.3 | 4.5 |
| 13 | Bury | £608 | £436 | 39% | 7.1 | 5.5 |
| 14 | West Bromwich | £522 | £379 | 38% | 6.8 | 6.7 |
| 15 | Farnborough | £656 | £525 | 25% | 6.8 | 3.9 |
| 16 | Waltham Cross | £773 | £597 | 29% | 6.7 | 4.0 |
| 17 | St. Helens | £608 | £369 | 65% | 6.7 | 3.7 |
| 18 | Livingston | £554 | £414 | 34% | 6.6 | 7.4 |
| 19 | Tamworth | £578 | £437 | 32% | 6.6 | 4.6 |
| 20 | Halesowen | £556 | £387 | 44% | 6.6 | 4.6 |
| 21 | Kingston upon Thames | £903 | £653 | 38% | 6.5 | 5.0 |
| 22 | Rochdale | £562 | £413 | 36% | 6.5 | 4.8 |
| 23 | Solihull | £649 | £493 | 32% | 6.4 | 3.2 |
| 24 | Redditch | £533 | £399 | 34% | 6.4 | 3.4 |
| 25 | Southall | £785 | £509 | 54% | 6.1 | 5.4 |
| 26 | Weston Super Mare | £624 | £440 | 42% | 6.1 | 4.1 |
| 27 | Epsom | £802 | £608 | 32% | 6.1 | 4.2 |
| 28 | Salford | £730 | £455 | 60% | 6.0 | 5.4 |
| 29 | Tunbridge Wells | £727 | £544 | 34% | 5.9 | 3.2 |
| 30 | Basingstoke | £656 | £499 | 31% | 5.7 | 3.0 |
| 31 | Great Yarmouth | £557 | £389 | 43% | 5.6 | 5.6 |
| 32 | Dunstable | £624 | £468 | 33% | 5.6 | 4.2 |
| 33 | Bognor Regis | £706 | £471 | 50% | 5.6 | 4.8 |
| 34 | Brentwood | £793 | £605 | 31% | 5.5 | 5.3 |
| 35 | Inverness | £626 | £465 | 35% | 5.5 | 2.8 |
| 36 | Birkenhead | £506 | £382 | 32% | 5.5 | 5.2 |
| 37 | Stevenage | £723 | £486 | 49% | 5.4 | 3.2 |
| 38 | Dudley | £545 | £403 | 35% | 5.4 | 4.2 |
| 39 | Staines | £767 | £571 | 34% | 5.4 | 5.2 |
| 40 | Bolton | £553 | £385 | 44% | 5.3 | 4.1 |
| 41 | Ashford | £667 | £488 | 37% | 5.3 | 3.1 |
| 42 | Ellesmere Port | £578 | £393 | 47% | 5.3 | 2.9 |
| 43 | Fareham | £621 | £478 | 30% | 5.3 | 4.3 |
| 44 | Waterlooville | £648 | £472 | 37% | 5.3 | 3.0 |
| 45 | Cannock | £656 | £389 | 69% | 5.2 | 5.4 |
| 46 | Harlow | £707 | £536 | 32% | 5.2 | 4.4 |
| 47 | Chesterfield | £553 | £399 | 39% | 5.2 | 2.9 |
| 48 | Gateshead | £564 | £398 | 42% | 5.2 | 3.3 |
| 49 | Halifax | £542 | £374 | 45% | 5.1 | 2.6 |
| 50 | Clacton on Sea | £610 | £434 | 41% | 5.1 | 4.2 |
| 51 | Horsham | £756 | £526 | 44% | 5.1 | 3.6 |
| 52 | Stockport | £650 | £451 | 44% | 5.1 | 3.8 |
| Whole of UK | £748 | £576 | 30% | 2.6 | 2.9 |
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