With this week bringing yet more strikes across the country, commuters must be feeling particularly stung by last week’s fare increases, as they struggle to make their way into work on even-more-packed-than-usual trains.
But along with the increase in travelling costs (if they actually manage to travel!) Landbay’s latest Rental price index has revealed that many commuters who live in London’s most popular commuters towns have also faces a hike in their rent as well!
This double whammy of rail fare increases and rent hike has been evident in 17 out of 40 of London’s most popular commuter towns, with commuters facing an average combined cost increase of £325 a year in fares and rent.
Rail fares on long-distance travel and season tickets increased by an average of 3.6% across the UK last week – which equated to £142 a year on a season ticket from these commuter hotspots - and on average rents in these popular towns grew by 1.68% - an increase of £183 a year.
Cambridge was hit hardest, with a 2.06% (£228) rise in rent, and £172 increase in rail fare, leaving commuters looking at a hefty bill to kick off the new year.
Brighton, Luton, Hastings, Basingstoke, Ashford, Canterbury and Horsham all saw rent rises of more than 1% - double the UK average – which doesn’t make keeping your finances on track easy, especially when combined with the rail fare hike.
It’s not all bad news though! Some regions outside the capital saw a rent drop during 2017, with rents in Guildford, Reigate and Woking all falling by an average of 0.73%, or £127.
However, not all buy-to-let hotspots in the South East have seen rents increase, with average rents in Guildford, Reigate and Woking falling during 2017, by an average of £127, or 0.73%.
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