A record number of cash-strapped landlords are tackling the new mood of austerity by looking to turn part of their property into rented accommodation.
The flat and house-share website Spareroom.co.uk has seen over 6,000 new live-in landlord adverts flood the site in July 2010 – the most submitted in any one month since the site launched six years ago.
This is equal to 200 adverts being placed every day, showing the sharp increase in households looking to supplement their income.
In the wake of rising living costs and concerns over job cuts, hard-hit homeowners are considering the move a financial lifeline.
According to Spareroom.co.uk figures, the number of live-in landlord adverts placed in July 2010 is 11 percent higher than the number of adverts placed in June and 32 percent higher than July last year.
Additionally, there was an increase of a fifth in live-in landlord adverts posted in the second quarter of 2010 compared to the first quarter and a further 15 percent rise in adverts in the first six months of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009.
The website's director, Matt Hutchinson, said: “Homeowners were already feeling the financial pinch before June's budget.
“Now that the Government has announced a raft of measures to tackle the country's massive debts, many more homeowners, who may have thought they were financially secure, are starting to look nervously over their shoulders.”
With the average weekly room rent in the UK currently standing at £88 according to the website, it seems more people than ever are realising the benefits of housing a lodger to ride out the recession.
The tax-efficient benefits of capitalising on an empty spare room are also an undeniable attraction – with the Government's rent-a-room allowance enabling homeowners to earn £4,250 from a rented room totally tax-free.
And with the recent raft of debt-crunching measures ushered in by June’s Budget, along with inflationary pressures and public sector job cuts, saving on the bills with a rented room may help ease the pinch.
Lodgers are no longer restricted to students or the less well off either. With first-time buyers struggling to get on the ladder, renting out rooms is experiencing a widespread revival.
