Member Article

Average tenancy deposit goes above £1500

Edinburgh and Brighton names most expensive places outside of London to move house, Bradford and Hull the cheapest

Landlords and letting agents in Britain’s biggest cities are limiting potential tenants to people with an average of £1507 available for a deposit – at a time when one in four families has an average of £95 of savings.

Edinburgh and Brighton are the most expensive large cities to move house, with Bradford and Hull the cheapest

Research from deposit free renting firm Dlighted shows that the average tenancy deposit in the UK’s 20 biggest cities currently stands at £1407 – rising to £1536 if London is included.

The news comes as figures from insurer Aviva recently revealed that one in four British families have just £95 in savings.

Dlighted’s data shows Edinburgh (£2631) and Brighton (£2589) to be the most expensive cities outside of London to move house – followed by Manchester (£1834), Cardiff (£1825) and Leeds (£1814)

Hull and Bradford (£684) are the cheapest places in the UK to move house, followed by Stoke (£797), Sunderland (£855) and Derby (£891).

The League table for the highest deposit costs in Britain’s biggest cities (excluding London) is as follows.

Edinburgh (£2631) Brighton (£2589) Manchester (£1834) Cardiff (£1825) Leeds (£11814) Coventry (£1702) Bristol (£1617) Birmingham (£1449) Newcastle (£1416) Plymouth (£1283) Liverpool (£1224) Leicester (£1217) Glasgow (£1205) Sheffield (£1170) Swansea (£1148) Derby (£891) Sunderland (£855) Stoke (£797) Bradford/Hull (£684)

The average tenancy deposit for London currently stands at £3015.

Ajay Jagota is Managing Director of Dlighted.

Dlighted allows landlords and letting agents to let properties with zero deposit, using deposit replacement insurance to provide £600,000 of cover against legal fees, unpaid rent and property damage.

Deposit free renting with Dlighted cuts tenant’s move in costs by almost 90%, with 85% of renters surveyed stating that deposit free renting was their primary reason for choosing a property or letting agent.

Ajay said:

“Landlords and letting agents have really got to ask themselves whether it’s good business to ask tenants to pay sixteen times their total life savings to become their customers, when zero deposit renting using deposit replacement insurance gives them almost 400 times as much protection against unpaid rent, property damage.

“Doing things this way doesn’t just make it harder to find tenants, by forcing them into debt or financial dire straits just to become your customers it makes it harder to keep them too.

“Dlighted is the only deposit free renting firm where renters don’t pay a penny – unless they actively decide to take out one of our low-cost policies. But this doesn’t just benefit them – it benefits their landlords and letting agents too.”

Notes to editors

Figures assume tenancy deposits equivalent to six weeks rent, as envisaged in the government’s draft Tenants Fees Bill.

Dlighted will publish deposit figures for London boroughs in the coming weeks.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by John Hart .