Arla report reveals that those buying their first home in 2016 will have paid an average of £52,900 in rent

People who buy their first home in England in 2016 will have spent more than £50,000 on rent since moving out of their family home, a report by letting agents has found.

Figures from the Association of Residential Letting Agents (Arla) show that UK tenants spent an average of 22% of their wages on rent last year, and that buyers getting on the ladder this year will have previously paid out an average of £52,900 to landlords.

The Arla research, which is based on someone moving out of their family home at 18 and renting for 13 years, shows that in the north-east a typical tenant will have spent £31,300 on rent before they can buy, while in London the figure is £68,300.

Rents have risen rapidly in recent years as would-be first-time buyers have struggled to afford to buy a home and been forced to spend longer in the private rented sector.

Figures from estate estate agents Your Move and Reeds Rain recently showed that rents on new tenancies rose by 3.4% in 2015 to an average of £794 a month.

Arla’s figures, which were compiled with the Centre for Economics and Business Research, suggest that someone moving into rented accommodation in London today will spend an average of £91,500 on rent before buying their first home. The figures assume they will still spend 13 years renting.

A fifth of those renting now told ARLA they did not expect to ever be able to afford to buy a home.

David Cox, managing director of Arla, said: “The rising cost of rent in this country is a huge issue, and is preventing tenants from being able to save to buy a home.

“As house price affordability worsens and interest rates start rising, more pressure will be put on renting with weekly rent likely to rise, so homeownership will remain out of reach for many.”

Jeremy Leaf, former chairman of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, said it was “no wonder that the average age of a first-time buyer keeps rising as saving the necessary deposit in order to buy, while paying such high rents, is a hard task”.

Leaf added that if buy-to-let landlords did decide to sell up after new tax rules came into force in April, this could mean more bad news for tenants.



“If landlords do exit the buy-to-let sector en masse post-April as higher stamp duty and less beneficial tax breaks come into force, rents will only rise because there will be fewer properties for tenants to choose from,” he said.

“First-time buyers may find their already steep rent bill increases further unless the lack of supply is addressed.”

On Thursday official figures showed that the number of tenants evicted from their homes had risen to a record high in 2015.