"Sheffield landlords have hiked private rents by 10 per cent, residents can't afford to spend locally"

New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has shown private rents in Sheffield have risen more than almost anywhere else in Yorkshire from April 2023 to April 2024 and significantly more than local house prices and wages.

The average rent payment for a private property in Sheffield is now £839 per month, a big jump from the £763 in April last year.

Ben McGarry, chairperson of the Kelham Island and Neepsend Community Alliance, told The Star: “Rentals around here are high. Go to any estate agents and you will see high prices for even one bedroom.

“There are a lot of private renters here and the rents are probably high enough to prevent them from going out and splurging locally... Disposable income is possibly quite low.”

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According to the 2021 Census, Cathedral & Kelham is the area of Sheffield with the highest proportion of people being private renters. 71 per cent of local residents rent with private landlords.

Mr McGarry continued: “Everyone thinks this is a very wealthy area, especially since the prices of food and beer are some of the highest in the city.

“It can be like Whitby at the weekends, but during weekdays it is very, very quiet.”

The ONS figures have revealed private rents across Yorkshire & The Humber rose by 7.5 per cent. The national private rent average rose by 8.7 per cent.

Of all the cities in our county, only York (12.5 per cent) saw the average private rent rise more than Sheffield. Private rents in the region’s two other largest cities, Leeds and Bradford, rose by an average of 7.5 and 7.6 per cent respectively.

The large increase in Sheffield’s rent statistics comes against the backdrop of far lower house price increases. According to the same ONS release, house prices in Sheffield are up just 2.3 per cent over the same time period.

Earlier financial releases by the ONS has shown the average wage in Sheffield has only gone up by 7.4 per cent from June 2023 to June 2024, nearly 25 per cent less than private rents.

The Star approached the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA), who represent a number of local landlords in Sheffield, to ask how 10 per cent rises can be justified against slower rising wages.

A spokesperson for the NRLA said: “Landlords across the market do not want to raise rents. However many have been forced to do so as a consequence of increased costs which have occurred as a result of inflation and high interest rates.

“The rise in rents across the UK has also been caused by the private rented sector’s ongoing supply and demand crisis, which has reduced choice for renters throughout the country.

“We call on the next government to address the sector’s supply issues by introducing pro-growth measures which encourage more landlords stay in the market and provide more much-needed private rented accommodation.”

UK interest rates shot up during Liz Truss’ short period at Prime Minister, when then-Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng announced a mini-budget with numerous unfunded tax cuts.

Mortgage rates in particular have reached significant highs, particularly in 2023, but ONS figures suggest the monthly payments on new fixed-rate mortgages are coming down.

What is Project Peter Pan?

National World's 17 city world division news titles are collaborating on Project Peter Pan: championing the lost generation.

Project Peter Pan - launched as the UK heads toward a general election in 2024 - aims to use our collective local media power online to give a voice to those in their 20s and 30s who have negotiated a pandemic, work hard and are ambitious, yet are lost.

They told our reporters they are frozen out of the housing ladder and stuck in a rental cycle often in substandard accommodation or they are in debt and facing impossible decisions.