How To Find A Room To Rent In London: 10 Tips From Seasoned Londoners (original) (raw)

I’ve lived in this city for four years and have lived in four different properties in that time. A London baby, I know – but still long enough to have learned a thing or two about the capital’s treacherous rental market.

My first London home was a strange-smelling shoebox above an agave bar on Kingsland Road. The second? A recently renovated Victorian townhouse with a garden which a former flatmate snagged for bargain rates during the pandemic (we begrudgingly moved out when the landlord raised rent by a sweet 60 percent). Fast forward through a month at an ex’s and now I’m living in a shared house in a decent area, paying below average rent with an (actually!) nice landlord. Hell, it’s not perfect, but I could be doing a lot worse.

The art of finding a good room to rent in the capital is an art you’ll slowly learn to master – often because you won’t have much other choice. Those horror stories about evil landlords, bidding wars, impossible flatmate interviews and viewing queues down the street? Not to scare you, but there’s some truth in them.

There is, of course, the bog-standard advice you shouldn’t overlook when searching for a room: don’t rent somewhere with mould (it probably won’t go away), always do the viewing in person, and don’t take that flat on the other side of the river to your pals (you won’t make the journey as often as you think). But there’s also a few other hacks you can have up your sleeve when embarking on the dreaded rental search. We asked Time Out staff to share their top tricks and tips for anyone looking for a room to rent in the capital: listen up, take note, and (most importantly) good luck.

How much is the average rent in London?

According to Spare Room, the average rent for a room in London in 2024 is £983 per month. Of course, it will vary depending on your postcode: if you’re looking to live in Islington, for example, expect to shell out around £1,187 for a room. If you venture out to East Ham, average rents sit at around £775. Londoners are currently spending around 40 percent of their earnings on rent, so whatever you do, be sure to budget accordingly.

Let’s not beat around the bush: renting in this city is bloody expensive. Finding cheap rent is often a matter of luck and patience, and people will go to all sorts of lengths to cut costs on their housing bills. If you’re tackling the private market, word-of-mouth is often how you’ll find those rare gems: decent quality rooms at lower-than-average rent. Being flexible on the area you live in will help you cut rent costs, as will sharing a room with a partner. Sadly, though, cheap rent often comes at the expense of space, proximity to central London and sometimes decent living conditions. There are also alternative living options you can explore – like shared warehouse living, canal boats or property guardianships – which often claim to come with lower price tags.

Are rent prices rising?

According to the Office for National Statistics, average UK private rents increased by 8.4 percent between August 2023 to 2024, while in London, rent increased by 9.6 percent over the year.

How to find a room to rent in London

If you’re looking to find a specific room, rather than a whole property, there’s lots of ways to do it. Our advice? Use your network. Post ads on Instagram stories saying you’re looking for somewhere to live and ask your followers to share it: you never know who your mates, auntie or old babysitter might know. Look on Facebook groups like ‘Gals Who Rent’, ‘MatesPlace’ and ‘Hackney Wick Spaces’. Facebook might be dead but it still has a few decent private groups which are worth checking out before you fork out for SpareRoom’s early bird access.