Analysis across ten major British cities has revealed that rising rents, increased living costs and a lack of available homes to move in to has led to a greater proportion of renters leaving the cities they live in.

The new data from Rightmove reveals that a greater proportion of renters are leaving cities to find a cheaper place to live or to get more for their money. Across ten major cities, 42% of renters are now looking to move out of the city they currently live in while the remaining 58% are looking to stay in the city. This is an increase on 37% looking to leave last year and up from 28% in pre-pandemic February 2020.

London has seen the biggest increase in the proportion of renters looking outside the city compared with a year ago, followed by Sheffield and Manchester.

Rents rising at a record pace over the past few years and a decline in the number of available properties to move to are likely reasons that a greater proportion of
renters are looking outside of the city to secure a home.

Average asking rents across Great Britain are up 11% compared with this time last year, and up 12% across ten major city centres on average.

Edinburgh city centre has seen the largest increase in average asking rents compared with last year (19%), followed by inner London (18%) and Manchester city centre (14%).