Sheffield yet again remains one of the cheapest major cities to live, despite the cost-of-living crisis since 2022.
Data from property site Zoopla indicates that the steel city is still cheaper to rent in than its northern contemporaries of Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester.
The average rent in Sheffield – the UK’s third densely populated city – stands at £747 per month. By comparison, Manchester’s figure sits over £200 more expensive, at £978 per month.
However, Sheffield did record a higher annual percentage increase of rent than their neighbours in West Yorkshire and Merseyside, with a whopping 10% increase from 2022, which in itself was a 2.7% increase from the 2022 data set.
Zoopla say that the increasing prices can be explained by rental demand driven by a surge in the jobs market as indicated by data from the Office of National Statistics.
It is said this surge was caused by an influx of foreign nationals hired to perform skilled jobs. Zoopla also claim that a jump in student numbers following a resumption of pre-pandemic living has contributed to the spike in demand, given there were 680,000 overseas students to the UK in 2021/22.
As a city that benefits from two huge student populations, Sheffield has surely witnessed this firsthand.
It now remains to be seen how Sheffield City Council will combat these sizeable increases, to make sure the city remains an affordable place to live.
Viewers can see the full set of data analysed, by clicking here.
