Five years' rent close to value of a 20% house deposit, research reveals

Updated

The average private renter of a two-bedroom home in England has paid out more than £40,000 to their landlord over the past five years, according to analysis from Shelter.

The charity said the typical amount paid out would be £41,196 - which is only around £2,000 less than the sum needed for a 20% deposit on the average first-time buyer home, priced at £216,500.

Someone paying private rent on an average two-bedroomed property in London would have paid more than £89,000 in just five years - and in boroughs such as Hammersmith, Islington, and Camden, the typical cost would have been over £100,000, Shelter said.

Meanwhile, living in an average privately rented home in Manchester would have meant paying out more than £40,000 over five years. In Bristol the rent paid would be nearly £48,000, and in Sheffield it would be more than £32,000, according to the charity's calculations, which are based on a range of official statistics.

Campbell Robb, Shelter's chief executive, said: "When just five years of rent could get you the deposit on a house, it's no wonder England's renters feel like they're getting a raw deal, paying through the nose for something they can never call their own."

Shelter said people can see how far their rent could have gone towards a typical first-time home at www.shelter.org.uk/rentcalculator.

Here is the typical private rent someone would have paid for a two-bedroom home over the last five years across England, according to Shelter, followed by the price of an average first-time buyer home and the percentage of an average first-time buyer home that five years of rent could have paid for:

:: London, £89,269, £394,905, 23%

:: South East, £47,421, £257,258, 18%

:: East, £38,906, £226,636, 17%

:: South West, £38,137, £195,672, 19%

:: West Midlands, £32,313, £156,548, 21%

:: North West, £30,930, £141,852, 22%

:: East Midlands, £30,488, £149,642, 20%

:: Yorkshire and the Humber, £29,808, £141,584, 21%

:: North East, £27,476, £123,047, 22%

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