- Searches by renters reveal swelling interest in suburbia, as well as coastal, commuter and market towns, as more are priced out of major cities and hybrid working endures.
- Mortlake and Chadwell Heath in suburban London make the top three, while searches for Ashton-under-Lyne, a well-connected Manchester commuter town near the M60, are up 73%.
One of the perks of renting with flatmates has been having the option to live in major cities, due to the relative affordability of shared living. However, not a single city features in the top 50 areas for increased interest in new search data from flatshare site SpareRoom, which points to flatsharers migrating further out of major cities.
Suburban Mortlake - where a train to Waterloo station takes as little as 23 minutes, and room rents at £825 per month are £157 below the average for London* - tops the list for increased searches by renters.
Renter searches for Ashton-under-Lyne, which is on the Manchester Metrolink tram network, and has direct rail services to Leeds, Sheffield and Liverpool, are up 73%. Average room rents here are £637 per month, compared to £695 per month in Manchester.
Also in the top 50 are Seven Kings, Chadwell Heath, Harrow Weald, Rainham, Caversham, Beaconsfield, Hoddesdon and Harpenden - all serve as commuter hubs into London - while Esher, Chertsey and Stanwell are part of the capital's commuter belt.
Shawlands and Gosforth are suburbs close to the city centres of Glasgow and Newcastle respectively. Further south, two areas near Bristol city centre feature: Bishopston and Redland. Renting in Redland, an affluent neighbourhood bordering The Downs, would save flatsharers an average £1,908 per year compared to living in central BS1 where rents are £940 per month.
Several coastal towns also make the list - including Lowestoft, Morecambe, Barry, Exmouth, South Shields, Leigh-on-Sea, and Shoreham-by-Sea - as well as market towns Cirencester, Saffron Walden, Totnes, Faversham, Daventry and Selby.
The table below shows the top 50 area search terms with the biggest annual increases among flatsharers, alongside their average monthly room rents:
| Area search term | Increase in searches 2024 vs 2023 | Average monthly room rent (Q1 2025) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mortlake | 85.3% | £825 |
| 2 | Ashton-under-lyne | 72.5% | £637 |
| 3 | Chadwell Heath | 54.1% | £760 |
| 4 | Saffron Walden | 53.3% | £675 |
| 5 | Cirencester | 48.0% | £652 |
| 6 | Redland | 43.9% | £781 |
| 7 | Morecambe | 42.1% | £593 |
| 8 | Strood | 41.4% | £703 |
| 9 | Chertsey | 40.5% | £804 |
| 10 | Redruth | 39.7% | £614 |
| 11 | Seven Kings | 35.7% | £789 |
| 12 | Bedminster | 32.3% | £753 |
| 13 | Cannock | 30.0% | £569 |
| 14 | Lowestoft | 29.8% | £582 |
| 15 | Harrow Weald | 29.2% | £803 |
| 16 | Haverhill | 27.8% | £633 |
| 17 | Shoreham-by-sea | 27.8% | £727 |
| 18 | Stanwell | 27.5% | £765 |
| 19 | Esher | 26.6% | £758 |
| 20 | Shawlands | 25.5% | £648 |
| 21 | Tiverton | 24.7% | £607 |
| 22 | Daventry | 24.0% | £697 |
| 23 | Faversham | 23.5% | £641 |
| 24 | Hook | 23.0% | £666 |
| 25 | Selby | 22.9% | £625 |
| 26 | Runcorn | 22.9% | £534 |
| 27 | Yate | 22.6% | £651 |
| 28 | Gosforth | 21.7% | £585 |
| 29 | Burgess Hill | 19.9% | £800 |
| 30 | Chorley | 19.3% | £562 |
| 31 | Blackburn | 18.6% | £503 |
| 32 | Harpenden | 18.5% | £758 |
| 33 | Barry | 18.1% | £580 |
| 34 | Darlington | 17.8% | £496 |
| 35 | Rainham | 17.0% | £779 |
| 36 | Harrow on the hill | 16.4% | £854 |
| 37 | Leigh-on-sea | 15.2% | £740 |
| 38 | Caversham | 14.7% | £706 |
| 39 | Beaconsfield | 14.6% | £828 |
| 40 | Totnes | 14.4% | £574 |
| 41 | South Shields | 14.1% | £510 |
| 42 | Exmouth | 14.0% | £770 |
| 43 | Hoddesdon | 13.8% | £821 |
| 44 | Burnley | 13.5% | £468 |
| 45 | Bishopston* | 12.9% | £622 |
| 46 | Biggleswade | 12.4% | £680 |
| 47 | Thetford | 12.3% | £580 |
| 48 | Havant | 12.1% | £617 |
| 49 | Nuneaton | 11.7% | £513 |
| 50 | Letchworth | 11.7% | £667 |
Source: SpareRoom.co.uk
A March 2025 survey by SpareRoom of 6,524 flatsharers found three quarters are now spending more than 30% of their take-home pay on rent, and 26% are spending more than half.
Matt Hutchinson, director of flatshare site SpareRoom, comments: “Area search increases are a good gauge of where the rental market is heading. What these are signalling is a migration from city centres to market towns, commuter hubs, suburbs and the seaside. This is partly enabled by hybrid and remote working, but is also being driven by a lack of affordable rented accommodation in cities. Although average room rents in some parts of the UK are showing signs of stabilisation, rents are still a very long way from being affordable. The price tag on city living is moving further out of reach.”