Average London rents are approaching 80% of residents' average monthly pay, as prices head past the £2,000 mark.

The average salary of a London resident is just over £41,000, according to recent data published by Statista. After tax, this comes out to around £2,600 a month.

Meanwhile, new research by Homelet has shown London rents reaching an average £2,039 per calendar month – about 78% of average pay after tax.

Rents have also risen outside the capital, with average UK prices now hitting £1,213, a 1.2% from last month’s average of £1,199.

The trends reported within the HomeLet Rental Index are from data on actual achieved rental values for just-agreed tenancies arranged in the most recent period.

Read more: UK households to pay £9bn more as mortgage costs surge

Excluding London, the average price of rent in the UK is £1,016 per calendar month, up 1% from the previous month and up 9.5% from the previous year.

The study put Scotland as the highest monthly gainer with rental averages rising by 2.6%.

The UK’s cheapest rental area, the North East, saw another dip, dropping 2.0% month-on-month to £632.

“The fact that the London market is rising in terms of average price while the cheapest area in the country (North-East of England) is falling shows that the level of demand somewhat depends on location, but as a broad rule, there is a shortage of rental properties to meet demand, with many prospective tenants facing a real battle to secure a property," said Andy Halstead, HomeLet & Let Alliance CEO. "This frenzied market is likely to see prices continue to rise in the coming months.”

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The new data comes amid rising pressure in the mortgage market. Earlier this week it was revealed that UK households are struggling to pay their rising mortgages, with loans with arrears increasing by almost double-digits to £14.9bn.

The number of homeowners falling behind on their mortgages monthly payments increased by 9.5% in the first three months of the year and 12.5% on a year earlier, to £14.9bn, according to the latest figures from the Bank of England.

This is the highest seen since early 2021 and now accounts for almost 1% of all mortgage balances.

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