The UK’s Top Cities for Those Wishing to Rent with Pets
The UK’s Top Cities for Those Wishing to Rent with Pets
Analysing the UK’s best cities for renters with pets
Looking for flats to rent when you don’t have a pet can already be a hassle, but when you add a furry friend into the equation the task can become a thing of nightmares.
To help, we analysed the UK’s 25 largest cities by population figures to determine the most ‘pet-friendly’ locations for renters looking to move in with their much-loved pets. The analysis used 10 criteria points to score each of the cities against which we then used to work out an overall rank for each city.
Our research reveals that Southampton is the UK’s most pet friendly city for renters, performing well across all areas, particularly for lack of rent price ‘penalties’ for pet owners. The city also has a lower estimated number of neighbour complaints regarding pets.
Nottingham and Manchester made up the rest of the top three ‘pet friendly’ cities in the UK for renters, coming in second and third place respectively. Derby and Birmingham came in close behind, ranking at fourth and fifth respectively in the ranking.
Ranking factors include percentage of available rentals with a garden, percentage of available rentals listed as ‘pets allowed’, affordable rentals listed as ‘pets allowed’, lack of pet owner rent price ‘penalty’ and lack of neighbour complaints regarding pets amongst others.
Winners per category
Top 3 cities for percentage of available rentals with a garden
- Derby
- Wolverhampton
- Newport
Top 3 cities for percentage of available rentals listed as ‘pets allowed’
- Newport
- Plymouth
- Belfast
Top 3 cities for affordable rentals listed as ‘pets allowed’
- Bradford
- Belfast
- Kingston upon Hull
Top 3 cities for lack of pet owner rent price ‘penalty’
- Leeds
- Belfast
- Edinburgh
Top 3 cities for lack of neighbour complaints regarding pets
- Leeds
- Edinburgh
- Southampton
London came last in the list overall, performing poorly across all 10 criteria points. As well as London, the worst performing cities overall included Swansea, Glasgow, Cardiff and Leicester.
They say that almost half the UK population has a pet of some sort and so a major benefit to landlords who don’t currently allow pets is being able to tap into a wider pool of potential tenants.
Ranked: the UK’s 25 major cities when renting with pets
|
City |
Overall Index Rank |
|
Southampton |
1 |
|
Nottingham |
2 |
|
Manchester |
3 |
|
Derby |
4 |
|
Birmingham |
5 |
|
Plymouth |
6 |
|
Coventry |
7 |
|
Stoke-on-Trent |
8 |
|
Bristol |
9 |
|
Leeds |
10 |
|
Edinburgh |
11 |
|
Preston |
11 |
|
Liverpool |
13 |
|
Kingston upon Hull |
14 |
|
Sheffield |
15 |
|
Newport |
16 |
|
Sunderland |
17 |
|
Bradford |
17 |
|
Belfast |
17 |
|
Wolverhampton |
17 |
|
Leicester |
21 |
|
Cardiff |
22 |
|
Glasgow |
23 |
|
Swansea |
24 |
|
London |
25 |
Methodology
Our methodology involved analysing existing data and reputable sources.
The UK’s 25 major cities by population figures were analysed and the below 10 criteria points were analysed for each city:
- Pets per capita
- Pet friendly rentals
- Actual number of rentals with a private garden
- Percentage of available rentals with a private garden
- Actual number of rentals listed as ‘pets allowed’
- Percentage of available rentals listed as ‘pets allowed’
- Average monthly rental cost for ‘pets allowed’ listings
- Average rent differences between pet friendly and not pet-friendly
- Neighbour sentiment around local pets
Each of the cities were then ranked for each of the above criteria points, before an average rank across all aspects gave the final ranking number known as the ‘overall index number’. Desk research sources for each criterion is available on request.
Date: February 17, 2020
Category: Commercial Property
