The areas of Wales where rent prices have skyrocketed

New data has revealed the areas of Wales which have experienced the most dramatic changes to rental costs since 2015.

Self storage company ‘Storage Vault’ researched figures from the Office of National Statistics Price Index of Private Rents to create a leaderboard of areas across the whole of the UK that have seen the largest and lowest rent increases.

The data showed that Cardiff saw the highest increase in Wales, with rents rising 50.72% on average.

This was followed closely by Merthyr Tydfil with 50.11%.

Average rents in the Welsh capital in August 2015 stood at £692 but skyrocketed to £1043 by August 2024.

In Merthyr Tydfil, average rental prices in 2015 were £451 but now stand at £677.

Monmouthshire secured third place in the leaderboard with a rent increase of 48.53% with Torfaen following closely behind at 47.57%.

Blaenau Gwent took fifth place on the leader board of rent prices with an increase of 42.37% since 2015.

Lowest increase

At the other end of the scale, Ceredigion saw the smallest increases in the country at 14.70%, which was also the lowest increase within Great Britain overall.

Pembrokeshire saw a change of 20.71% with Powys following closely behind with an increase of 23.27%.

Denbighshire’s average rent prices in 2015 stood at £507 and increased by 27.23% in August 2024 to £645.

Flintshire rents have increased by 27.26% since 2015.

As a collective, Great Britain saw an average increase of 37.10% between August 2015 and August 2024, with average prices rising from £938 per month to £1286.

While Kensington and Chelsea had the highest rents overall in both 2015 and 2024, they saw a relatively low increase of just 27.29%.

The highest increase in average rents was found in Salford, where costs per month had risen from £636 to £1063, making a 67.04% rise from 2015 to 2024.

‘Surprise’

This was closely followed by the City of Bristol with a 62.91% increase, and Leicester which saw rents rise by 62.54% overall.

Only 1 area in Great Britain saw a fall in rents overall. The Aberdeen and Shire region saw average rents fall from £952 in August 2015, by -13.66% to £822 in 2024.

Dumfries and Galloway, which rounded out the bottom 5 in terms of rises, also had the lowest overall monthly average in 2024 with rents of just £483 overall.

Fraser Sutherland of Storage Vault who carried out the analysis said: “The biggest surprise was that some areas had seen a fall in rental costs, as opposed to the rises we expected.

“Rises at the levels seen in this data aren’t sustainable. In a country which has seen wages stagnate for over a decade, already stretched budgets become impossible to manage with rental costs increasing by almost 70% in some areas.

“When people become unable to afford increasing prices, ultimately it means they have to move further away from the areas their families, jobs and support networks are in.

“Moving frequently can also bring additional financial strain, as people need to pack up and transport or store their lives, until they can find a more permanent and affordable home.”