Metric permalink
Rent to income ratio
Part of the Housing and Household Formation domain. New-let private rent as a share of gross income, measuring the affordability burden of entering the private rented sector.
Latest data
Latest reading
FYE 2024
A higher reading is treated as worse for this indicator.
Score composition
Stress score
Blended from three components: (60% weight), trend (30% weight) and volatility (10% weight). Full formula on the methodology page.
Level · 60% weight
Percentile: this metric is scored against its own history, where today sits between its best and worst recorded years.
Trend · 30% weight
Measured from the direction and size of the change between the two most recent readings.
Volatility · 10% weight
41Measured from how much this indicator has swung period on period across its recorded history.
Data confidence and provenance
Confidence and source
How much weight to put on the reading, the mean data-confidence across the component metrics (source quality, recency and completeness).
Source
Housing affordability statistics
- Update frequency
- Annual
- Reliability
- high
Provenance
- Provider
- ONS
- Series ID
- private rental affordability, England
- Frequency
- annual
- Accessed
- 13 June 2026
Known weakness
New-let rents diverge significantly from renewal rents, so this measure overstates the burden for long-term tenants while understating entry barriers for new renters.
Notes
Verified official value from ONS (private rental affordability, England), accessed 2026-06-13.
Historical values
History
| Period | Value | Relative |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 39.4 | |
| 2017 | 39.2 | |
| 2018 | 39 | |
| 2019 | 37 | |
| 2020 | 35.4 | |
| 2021 | 38 | |
| 2022 | 35.7 | |
| 2023 | 34.2 | |
| 2024 | 36.3 |