Dataloft Briefing notes | Addressing topical issues in UK rental markets

With rental affordability frequently in the news at the moment, our analysts are focused on exploring the data behind the headlines.

In the latest edition of our Briefing Notes series, we look at the rental markets in 60 cities and towns. From this, we’ve identified the strongest relationships that explain high rents, using correlations to express the strength of the relationship as a percentage.

The strongest relationship is between rents and renter earnings. High earnings explain high rents. The correlation is 86%.

Affordability has a similar correlation with rents achieved (85%).

This strong positive relationship largely means places with higher affordability have higher rents, the more telling analysis comes as we segment affordability and can see the potential for higher earners to spend more on rent.

This analysis is extracted from our ‘Rental Potential Model’ which ranks 60 towns and cities across the UK.

As with all our rental analysis, it draws on our DRMA dataset of rents achieved and renter demographics. If you would like to see an example of a report or talk to us about underwriting future rental values, please set up a call. 

A pdf of this report is available to download here >

Briefing notes in this series

Issue 1: Short term loss of rental income – how vulnerable are UK cities?
Issue 2: Short term fall in earnings – how vulnerable are UK rental markets?
Issue 3: Short term loss of overseas students – how vulnerable are UK rental markets?
Issue 4: Open market rental values – what happened to values in London at the height of lockdown?
Issue 5: Vulnerable employment sectors – which residential rental markets are most exposed to an increase in unemployment.
Issue 6: Single family housing – exploring the opportunity in UK rental markets.
Issue 7: Moving renters – how long to renters stay in their homes?
Issue 8: Community – how important is community to renters?
Issue 9: Eco-Step Scores – measuring biodiversity in urban areas
Issue 10: Rental potential – using affordability to assess headroom for rents