Women Face More 'Rent Burden' Than Men, Housing Site Finds

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House keys and bills

It’s no secret that renters in the UK have been struggling – average rent rocketed up by 8.7% in the 13 months to January 2025, only slightly down from 2024′s record-beating 9.1% increase seen in 2024.

But according to data from flatshare site SpareRoom, women are more likely to be “rent burdened” (spending more than 30% of their income on rent) than men.

Per a 2025 survey conducted by the rent platform, 79% of women spend more than 30% of their take-home pay on rent compared to 69% for men.

And while 31% of women spend more than half of their net income on rent in this survey, only 20% of men said the same.

SpareRoom’s Ella Chisholm commented: “The gender pay gap puts women at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to meeting the spiralling cost of living and their plans for the future.

“As a consequence, women are more prone to getting into debt, pushing homeownership aspirations further out of reach.”

Why might women be more “rent burdened” than men?

Speaking to HuffPost UK, Chilsholm explained that the pay gap likely has a lot to do with it (as you probably expected).

“Men who rent typically out-earn women who rent, so women are having to spend a bigger chunk of their income on living costs,” she said.

But that’s only one theory.

Another, she added, “is that women are paying more in rent as they’re more likely to prioritise their personal safety, choosing areas closer to stations and bus stops to avoid walking long distances alone at night or generally living in areas where they feel safer – even if that comes at a higher cost.”

The expert also thinks that “women are less inclined to opt for larger houseshares which are generally cheaper, and tend to prefer to live in smaller flatshares”.

Men are way more likely to live with their parents in adulthood than women, too

Safety concerns and gender pay gaps might be leaving women more “rent burdened” than men.

But those comparisons can only be made among people who are both renting. And as Chisholm pointed out, adult women and men are not doing so at an equal rate.

“ONS data found that a third of men aged 20-34 still live with their parents, compared with just 22% of women of the same age, so there are just more women in the rental sector too,” she shared.

No wonder the “burden” is disproportionately placed on our shoulders.