The UK’s rental supply crisis is now most acute in towns as more renters are priced out of cities, Q2 2025 demand data from flatshare site SpareRoom has revealed.
Demand has more than doubled since 2019 in Oldbury, Aldershot, Paisley, Sutton Coldfield, and Solihull.
Matt Hutchinson, director of flatshare site 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?”
Suburban town Sale, within easy reach of Manchester, is seeing the fiercest competition among flatsharers 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.
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.