Space odyssey: renters in London should head south-east to find the most room for the least rent in the capital

The best-value areas in which to rent in the capital have just been revealed
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​Inner London renters looking for good-value homes should look to south-east London to get more space for their money, according to a new report.

The research compares the average amount of floor space £100 per month buys in rental homes in every inner London postcode.

Unsurprisingly, space is tighter and budgets go least far in London out of everywhere in the country.

Renters will find the best value in Abbey Wood, SE2, where £100 a month gets you 5.86sq m of floor space – an area slightly larger than a ping pong table – says letting agent OpenRent, who compiled the data.

In comparison, the same budget will get renters almost three times (14.83sq m) the amount of floor space in Bradford, the most affordable UK city for lettings.

Mapped: what £100 per month will get renters across London

Source: OpenRent

Also in south-east London, Crystal Palace, SE19, was the second best value for money area in the capital with 5.53sq m for £100 a month. Woolwich, SE18 and Selhurst, SE25 were also in the top five areas for amount of space per £100.

The only area in the top five outside south-east London was Hendon, NW4, which came in at third place with £100 a month getting 5.36sq m of floor space.

The London areas where renters get least space for their money are all in central London, with the City of London, EC4, scoring worst, with only 1.27sq m of floor space on offer. Chelsea, the West End, Mayfair and Marylebone and Bloomsbury all offered less than 2.5sq m for £100 per month.

Even the worst UK city after London – Oxford – offers 5.03sq m per £100, putting it in equal 13th place with Leyton, E10, on the London list.

“London scores so badly in this metric because of its huge rental prices, but also because of the common practice of subdividing larger, older properties into several smaller properties, designed to be able to accommodate more and more renters, “ said Sam Hurst, of OpenRent.

“To solve the issue, the city needs thousands more homes built directly for the private rented sector, and to ease the numbers of people entering the rental market by making new and first-time homes more affordable to buy.”