Renters in the UK spent on average 32.5 percent of their income on rent as of January 2025. Scotland and Yorkshire and Humber were the most affordable regions, with households spending less than 28 percent of their gross income on rent. Conversely, London, South West, and South East had a higher ratio. Greater London is the most expensive region for renters Greater London has a considerably higher rent than the rest of the UK regions. In 2024, the average rental cost in Greater London was more than twice higher than in the North West or West Midlands. Compared with Greater London, rent in the South East region was about 600 British pounds cheaper. London property prices continue to increase In recent years, house prices in the UK have been steadily increasing, and the period after the COVID-19 pandemic has been no exception. Prime residential property prices in Central London are forecast to continue rising until 2027. A similar trend in prime property prices is also expected in Outer London.

Approximately 42.5 percent of residents in renter-occupied housing units in the United States paid gross rent which exceeded 35 percent of their income in 2023. In comparison, about 12.3 percent paid less than 15 percent of their gross household income.

SELECTED HOUSING CHARACTERISTICS GROSS RENT AS PERCENTAGE OF INCOME - DP04 Universe - Occupied units paying rent Survey-Program - American Community Survey 5-year estimates Years - 2020, 2021, 2022 Gross rent as a percentage of household income is a computed ratio of monthly gross rent to monthly household income (total household income divided by 12). The ratio is computed separately for each unit and is rounded to the nearest tenth. Units for which no rent is paid and units occupied by households that reported no income or a net loss comprise the category “Not computed."

Price to Rent Ratio in the United States increased to 134.04 in the fourth quarter of 2024 from 133.46 in the third quarter of 2024. This dataset includes a chart with historical data for the United States Price to Rent Ratio.

Since 2015, the gap between the cost of buying a home and renting has grown, with homeownership becoming increasingly less affordable. In the ***** ******* of 2024, the house price to rent ratio in the UK stood at *****. That meant that house price growth has outpaced rental growth by nearly ** percent between 2015 and 2024. The UK's house price to rent ratio was slightly below the average Euro area ratio. House price to income ratio in the UK Another indicator for housing affordability is the house price to income ratio, which is calculated by dividing nominal house prices by the nominal disposable income per head. The ratio saw an overall increase between 2015, which was the base year, and 2022. After that, the index declined, but remained close to the average for the Euro area. Is it more affordable to rent or buy? There are many things to be considered when comparing buying to renting, such as the ability to qualify for a mortgage and whether prospective homebuyers have sufficient savings for a deposit. Generally, purchasing a home is more affordable than renting one. However, the average monthly savings first-time buyers can achieve have been on the decline. In East of England, where house prices have increased rapidly over the past few years, it was cheaper to rent than to buy in 2022.

About This Dataset

This dataset is the original 70-city version used in my first published research paper: “A Data-Driven Survey on Cost of Living and Salary Affordability in Indian Cities” (IJRASET, 2025) Link: https://www.ijraset.com/best-journal/a-datadriven-survey-on-cost-of-livingsalary-affordability-in-indian-cities

It was created using web-scraping techniques from LivingCost.org and converted to INR using a consistent USD→INR exchange rate. This dataset forms the foundational base for affordability analysis, exploratory data analysis (EDA), and benchmarking cost-of-living patterns across India.

The dataset includes 70+ Indian cities, with fields covering living cost, rent, salary, affordability ratio (“months covered”), and derived financial indicators. It is clean, structured, and suitable for beginner to intermediate analytics projects.

Why This Dataset?

This dataset is ideal for:

EDA practice for college & school projects

Correlation and regression analysis

Basic ML tasks (predicting salary, affordability, rent, etc.)

Urban economics mini-projects

Dashboard creation (PowerBI, Tableau)

Data cleaning and preprocessing assignments

It is designed to be simple enough for students but structured enough for real-world analysis.

Features Included

Each row represents a city/state-level affordability profile with:

Cost of living (USD & INR)

Rent for a single person (USD & INR)

Monthly after-tax salary (USD & INR)

Income after rent

“Months Covered” affordability ratio

Source URLs for verification

Exchange rate used

This makes the dataset both transparent and reliable for academic usage.

Data Quality

Web-scraped directly from LivingCost.org

Cleaned and standardized

Currency converted uniformly

Non-city entries flagged

Fully reproducible from the source

This dataset served as the master input for my peer-reviewed paper and has been validated through statistical analysis.

Intended Audience

Students (school, undergraduate, postgraduate)

Data science beginners

Educators needing real datasets for teaching

Analysts looking for quick EDA practice

Researchers exploring affordability or urban economics

Note

A more comprehensive 200+ city enhanced dataset (used in my second paper) will be uploaded soon, including ICT metrics, GDP, and extended affordability indicators.

Egypt Average Household Income: Percentage Distribution: Urban: Estimated Rental Value of Dwelling data was reported at 10.200 % in 2015. This records a decrease from the previous number of 10.600 % for 2013. Egypt Average Household Income: Percentage Distribution: Urban: Estimated Rental Value of Dwelling data is updated yearly, averaging 10.200 % from Jun 2005 (Median) to 2015, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 10.800 % in 2011 and a record low of 6.600 % in 2005. Egypt Average Household Income: Percentage Distribution: Urban: Estimated Rental Value of Dwelling data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Egypt – Table EG.H012: Average Household Income.

Price to Rent Ratio in Greece decreased to 156.31 in the second quarter of 2025 from 156.84 in the first quarter of 2025. This dataset includes a chart with historical data for Greece Price to Rent Ratio.

This dataset contains information about the percent of income households spend on rent in cities in San Mateo County. This data is for renters only, not those who live in owner-occupied homes with or without a mortgage. This data was extracted from the United States Census Bureau's American Community Survey 2014 5 year estimates.

Portugal, Hungary, and Mexico were the countries with the highest house price-to-rent-ratio in the ranking in the second quarter of 2025. In all three countries, the ratio exceeded 160 index points, meaning that house price growth had outpaced rents by over 60 percent between 2015 and 2025. What does the house-price-to-rent ratio show? The house-price-to-rent-ratio measures the evolution of house prices compared to rents. It is generally calculated by dividing the median house price by the median annual rent. In this statistic, the values have been normalized with 100 equaling the 2015 ratio. Consequentially, a value under 100 means that rental rates have risen more than house prices. When all OECD countries are considered as a whole, the gap between house prices and rents was wider than in the Euro area. Measures of housing affordability The national house-price-to-rent ratio may not fully reflect the cost of housing in a particular country, as it does not capture the price variations that can exist between different regions. It also does not take into consideration the relationship between incomes and housing costs, which is measured by the house-price-to-income and household-rent-to-income ratios. Taking both these factors into account uncovers vast differences in housing affordability between different regions and different professions.

Rental Affordability Analysis Based on Median Income

Trends in Tier-Based Affordability Across the U.S

By Zillow Data [source]

About this dataset

This dataset contains rental affordability data for different regions in the US, giving valuable insights into regional rental markets. Renters can use this information to identify where their budget will go the farthest. The cities are organized by rent tier in order to analyze affordability trends within and between different housing stock types. Within each region, the data includes median household income, Zillow Rent Index (ZRI), and percent of income spent on rent.

The Zillow Home Value Forecast (ZHVF) is used to calculate future combined mortgage pay/rent payments in each region using current median home prices, actual outstanding debt amounts and 30-year fixed mortgage interest rates reported through partnership with TransUnion credit bureau. Zillow also provides a breakdown of cash vs financing purchases for buyers looking for an investment or cash option solution.

This dataset provides an effective tool for consumers who want to better understand how their budget fits into diverse rental markets across the US; from condominiums and co-ops, multifamily residences with five or more units, duplexes and triplexes - every renter can determine how their housing budget should be adjusted as they consider multiple living possibilities throughout the country based on real-time price data!

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How to use the dataset

Introduction

Getting Started

• First, you'll need to download the TieredAffordability_Rental.csv dataset from this Kaggle page onto your computer or device.

• After downloading the data set onto your device, open it with any CSV viewing software of your choice (ex: Excel). It will include columns for RegionName**RegionName** , homes type/housing stock (All Homes or Condo/Co-op) SizeRank , Rent tier tier , Date date , median household income income , Zillow Rent Index zri and PercentIncomeSpentOnRent percentage (what portion of monthly median house-hold goes toward monthly mortgage payment) .

• To begin analyzing rental prices across different regions using this dataset, look first at column four: SizeRank; which ranks each region based on size - smallest regions listed first and largest at last - so that you can compare a similar range of Regions when looking at affordability by home sizes larger than one unit multiplex dwellings.*Duples/Triplex*. Once there is an understanding of how all homes compare overall now it is time to consider home types Multifamily 5+ units according to rent tiers tier .

• Next, choose one or more region(s) for comparison based on their rank in SizeRank column –so that all information gathered about them reflects what portionof households fall into certain categories ; eg; All Homes / Small Home /Large Home / MultiPlex Dwelling and what tier does each size rank falls into eg.: Affordable/Slightly Expensive/ Moderately Expensive etc.. This will enable further abstraction from other elements like date vs inflation rate per month or periodical intervals set herein by Rate segmentation i e dates givenin ‘Date’Columns – making the task easier and more direct while analyzing renatalAffordibility Analysis Based On Median Income zri 00 zwi & PCISOR 00 PCIRO

Research Ideas

• Use the PercentIncomeSpentOnRent column to compare rental affordability between regions within a particular tier and determine optimal rent tiers for relocating families.
• Analyze how market conditions are affecting rental affordability over time by using the income, zri, and PercentageIncomeSpentOnRent columns.
• Identify trends in housing prices for different tiers over the years by comparing SizeRank data with Zillow Home Value Forecast (ZHVF) numbers across different regions in order to identify locations that may be headed up or down in terms of home values (and therefore rent levels)

Acknowledgements

If you use this dataset in your research, please credit the original authors. Data Source

License

See the dataset description for more information.

Columns

File: TieredAffordability_Rental.csv | Column name | Description | |:-----------------------------|:-------------------------------------------------------------| | RegionName | The name of the region. (String) ...

Price to Rent Ratio in Italy decreased to 102.89 in the second quarter of 2025 from 102.91 in the first quarter of 2025. This dataset includes a chart with historical data for Italy Price to Rent Ratio.

This map shows housing costs as a percentage of household income. Severe housing cost burden is described as when over 50% of income in a household is spent on housing costs. For renters it is over 50% of household income going towards gross rent (contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities). Miami, Florida accounts for the having the highest population of renters with severe housing burden costs.The map's topic is shown by tract and county centroids. This service is updated annually to contain the most currently released American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year data, and contains estimates and margins of error. There are also additional calculated attributes related to this topic, which can be mapped or used within analysis. Income is based on earnings in past 12 months of survey. Current Vintage: 2015-2019ACS Table(s): B25070, B25091Data downloaded from: Census Bureau's API for American Community Survey Date of API call: December 10, 2020National Figures: data.census.govThe United States Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS):About the SurveyGeography & ACSTechnical DocumentationNews & UpdatesThis map can be used within ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, its configurable apps, dashboards, Story Maps, custom apps, and mobile apps. Data can also be exported for offline workflows. Please cite the Census and ACS when using this data.Data Note from the Census:Data are based on a sample and are subject to sampling variability. The degree of uncertainty for an estimate arising from sampling variability is represented through the use of a margin of error. The value shown here is the 90 percent margin of error. The margin of error can be interpreted as providing a 90 percent probability that the interval defined by the estimate minus the margin of error and the estimate plus the margin of error (the lower and upper confidence bounds) contains the true value. In addition to sampling variability, the ACS estimates are subject to nonsampling error (for a discussion of nonsampling variability, see Accuracy of the Data). The effect of nonsampling error is not represented in these tables.Data Processing Notes:This layer is updated automatically when the most current vintage of ACS data is released each year, usually in December. The layer always contains the latest available ACS 5-year estimates. It is updated annually within days of the Census Bureau's release schedule. Click here to learn more about ACS data releases.Boundaries come from the US Census TIGER geodatabases. Boundaries are updated at the same time as the data updates (annually), and the boundary vintage appropriately matches the data vintage as specified by the Census. These are Census boundaries with water and/or coastlines clipped for cartographic purposes. For census tracts, the water cutouts are derived from a subset of the 2010 AWATER (Area Water) boundaries offered by TIGER. For state and county boundaries, the water and coastlines are derived from the coastlines of the 500k TIGER Cartographic Boundary Shapefiles. The original AWATER and ALAND fields are still available as attributes within the data table (units are square meters). The States layer contains 52 records - all US states, Washington D.C., and Puerto RicoCensus tracts with no population that occur in areas of water, such as oceans, are removed from this data service (Census Tracts beginning with 99).Percentages and derived counts, and associated margins of error, are calculated values (that can be identified by the "_calc_" stub in the field name), and abide by the specifications defined by the American Community Survey.Field alias names were created based on the Table Shells file available from the American Community Survey Summary File Documentation page.Negative values (e.g., -4444...) have been set to null, with the exception of -5555... which has been set to zero. These negative values exist in the raw API data to indicate the following situations:The margin of error column indicates that either no sample observations or too few sample observations were available to compute a standard error and thus the margin of error. A statistical test is not appropriate.Either no sample observations or too few sample observations were available to compute an estimate, or a ratio of medians cannot be calculated because one or both of the median estimates falls in the lowest interval or upper interval of an open-ended distribution.The median falls in the lowest interval of an open-ended distribution, or in the upper interval of an open-ended distribution. A statistical test is not appropriate.The estimate is controlled. A statistical test for sampling variability is not appropriate.The data for this geographic area cannot be displayed because the number of sample cases is too small.

Expenditure on rent by renters and mortgages by mortgage holders, by region and age from the Living Costs and Food Survey for the financial year ending 2022. Data is presented as a proportion of total expenditure and a proportion of disposable income.

Graph and download economic data for Rental Income of Persons with Capital Consumption Adjustment (CCAdj) (RENTIN) from Q1 1947 to Q2 2025 about CCADJ, rent, personal income, personal, income, GDP, and USA.

The main objective of the Survey on Rented Households is as follows: To know the characteristics and situation of households residing in rental housing in the Basque Country and the characteristics of rental housing by type of rental. It is a basic source of information for the system of indicators for monitoring housing policy.More information can be found at https://www.euskadi.eus/survey-to-household-in-regimen-enalq-informacion/web01-s2ing/en/">departmental statistical portal.

Rent Affordability: Average monthly private rent as a percentage of median monthly salary - (2 bedroom properties) *This indicator has been discontinued

Median Gross Rent As A Percentage Of Household Income (Dollars) Report based on US Census and American Community Survey Data.

Portugal, Canada, and the United States were the countries with the highest house price to income ratio in 2024. In all three countries, the index exceeded 130 index points, while the average for all OECD countries stood at 116.2 index points. The index measures the development of housing affordability and is calculated by dividing nominal house price by nominal disposable income per head, with 2015 set as a base year when the index amounted to 100. An index value of 120, for example, would mean that house price growth has outpaced income growth by 20 percent since 2015. How have house prices worldwide changed since the COVID-19 pandemic? House prices started to rise gradually after the global financial crisis (2007–2008), but this trend accelerated with the pandemic. The countries with advanced economies, which usually have mature housing markets, experienced stronger growth than countries with emerging economies. Real house price growth (accounting for inflation) peaked in 2022 and has since lost some of the gain. Although, many countries experienced a decline in house prices, the global house price index shows that property prices in 2023 were still substantially higher than before COVID-19. Renting vs. buying In the past, house prices have grown faster than rents. However, the home affordability has been declining notably, with a direct impact on rental prices. As people struggle to buy a property of their own, they often turn to rental accommodation. This has resulted in a growing demand for rental apartments and soaring rental prices.

Gross Rent As A Percentage Of Household Income Report based on US Census and American Community Survey Data.