A quarter of Londoners spend more than half of their monthly income on rent, according to recently-published research, which reveals the extraordinary cost of an address in the city.

The average monthly rent paid by tenants in London (for a room) is £748 while a fifth of all tenants pay more than £200 a month on top for utilities and council tax, says flatmate matching website SpareRoom.

It also reveals that tenants who rent one-bedroom apartments pay on average more than half of their salary on accommodation in 25 out of 33 boroughs.

The boroughs where tenants spend the largest slice of their salaries are:

• Kensington & Chelsea - 85%

• Hackney - 81%

• Brent - 75%

• Newham - 74%

• Lambeth - 71%

• Hounslow - 71%.

“The most common frustration for many renters is that, despite forking out so much money to rent a room or a property in London, none of it counts towards their credit score in the same way a mobile phone contract or a utility bill does,” says Sheraz Dar, CEO of CreditLadder.

CreditLadder helps tenants to build their credit score by recording their regular rental payments and reporting them to all the main Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs) in the UK, namely Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.

“It is becoming increasingly important for renters to have a good credit score if they aspire to get a mortgage one day or if they don’t, then to get the best credit terms for loans and phone contracts,” says Sheraz.

43% of renters in London think the city’s rents are affordable, and only 39% say they could afford to rent by themselves instead of within a shared house.

Also, despite the hundreds of apartment developments springing up across the capital, only 39% of renters live in a flat, while the rest live in houses.

The average London renter also shares with three people, 60% rent with people they didn’t know until moving in with them, and a quarter also going out most evenings rather than staying in. The average salary among the renters interviewed is £34,383.

The rental figures put together by SpareRoom are drawn from Office for National Statistics, council tax and property website Sellhousefast.

CreditLadder can help you improve your credit score

If you want to improve your credit position by reporting your rent payments, CreditLadder is the only way to improve your credit score and position across all four of the main Credit Reference Agencies in the UK, namely Experian, Equifax, TransUnion and Crediva. Building up a high credit score has a lot of benefits, including helping you access finance at better rates - this can also help save you money.

CreditLadder also runs a free mortgage application service in partnership with Tembo which will tell you how much you could borrow.

Remember the information provided in this article is for information purposes only and should not be considered as advice.