New data puts the salary required to rent in London at 2.4 times that of Yorkshire and Humberside
Rental prices are climbing across most of the UK while the salary bar for securing a tenancy keeps rising – a combination that slowly destroys the deposit-saving capacity of a generation of prospective first-time buyers (FTBs).
Propertymark’s October 2026 rental tracker, which measures both average agreed rents and the representative annual salary referencing agencies require to approve a tenancy, shows rents increased in eight of eleven regions between September and October. The year-on-year picture is similarly uncomfortable: eight regions now require a higher salary to pass referencing than they did in October 2025.
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Affordability remains a significant challenge
Propertymark's data on salary figures reflect what referencing agencies actually demand. Agencies typically require gross annual income to be a multiple of the annual rent, commonly between 2.5 and 3 times. That threshold is now £69,660 in London, up 2.1% year-on-year.
Yorkshire and Humberside sits at the other end of the scale at £29,130 – meaning London’s entry requirement is 2.4 times higher than the country’s most affordable region. Scotland recorded the steepest annual increase at 3.2% (now £32,820), followed by Wales at 3% and the South West at 2.5%.
Three regions bucked the trend: the North East fell 6.1% to £33,960, the East Midlands dropped 2.8% to £30,420, and the North West edged down 1.1% to £32,370. Those three markets are worth watching as potentially more accessible pipelines for FTBs.
Monthly rent movements – handle with care
October’s month-on-month figures show sharp swings in several regions. Wales recorded a 31.1% rise from September to October (£995 to £1,304), while the North East jumped 29.8% (£872 to £1,132).
Movements of that scale in a single month typically reflect sample size volatility rather than a structural shift. The year-on-year data is the more reliable indicator of underlying market direction.
Scotland, London, and the North West were the only regions where monthly rents fell – London by 3.9% to £2,322, Scotland by 3.5% to £1,094, and the North West by 2.7% to £1,079.
Kim Lidbury, president of ARLA Propertymark (Association of Residential Letting Agents) said: "Looking at affordability over the longer term, the picture is similarly challenging. The salary required to secure an average-priced rental has increased in eight regions over the past year, with Scotland, Wales and the South West seeing the largest increases. This reinforces the fact that rental costs continue to place pressure on household incomes, even where some regional improvements have been recorded."
The pipeline problem brokers aren’t pricing in
What these figures confirm is that there is no clear or consistent direction of travel across the country. Some regions are pulling sharply upward; others are easing, and the picture shifts from month to month.
That unpredictability makes it harder for tenants to plan, harder for landlords to price, and harder for brokers to set expectations with clients who are still renting and watching the market, waiting for a moment to make their move.
The numbers confirm something brokers working with FTBs are already feeling: the gap between wanting to buy and being able to is getting longer, not shorter. In fact, solo buyers in London now need to save approximately £47,692 to cover a deposit and upfront costs, putting the saving period at around 13 years.
For brokers advising clients who are actively renting and saving, the regional divergence in affordability is a conversation worth having. Clients with flexibility on location may find those markets a faster route to the deposit threshold and eventually to a mortgage application than waiting out the pressure in higher-cost regions.
Lidbury added: "Ultimately, improving affordability will require a sustained focus on increasing the supply of good-quality rental homes. Supporting responsible landlords to remain in the sector and invest in their properties, while addressing the wider shortage of housing, will be essential to creating a more balanced and sustainable private rented sector for tenants."
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