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New data from the UK’s biggest property website Rightmove reveals that a greater proportion of renters are leaving Great Britain’s 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 proportion of renters looking outside the city compared with a year ago, followed by Sheffield & 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%).

Another contributing factor to leaving a city is that demand from renters to secure each available rental property has rapidly increased. Competition to secure a home to rent in a city centre has more than doubled compared with three years ago (+125%).

Some good news for renters is that competition between tenants is easing slightly compared with the record levels of last year. Compared with last year, tenant demand for each available rental home across Great Britain has dropped by 4%, and the number of available homes to rent has increased by 8%.