A survey carried out by Manchester based letting agent Harry Dhaliwal of the Belvoir group has found that the average Briton spends £11,100 on rent before buying their first home.

The study of UK homeowners was carried out ahead of forthcoming changes to buy-to-let stamp duty being introduced in April, analyzing the UK rental market.

Letting agent Dhaliwal commissioned the research which also found that the average person rents for over three years before buying their first home. The survey also found the that young Brits on average leave their parental home under the age of 21 to rent their own place.

Dhaliwal commented, “Sometimes the rhetoric around generation rent becomes quite exaggerated and whilst the rental market is growing so is the quality and variety of rental property. The findings of our survey highlight that renting across the UK is not as expensive as sometimes reported and most people get full deposits back from landlords. It remains to be seen what affect the stamp duty changes to buy-to-let purchases will have in April.”

“Whilst the struggles for first time buyers in London and high rental cost in the capital are well documented, the picture across the UK in general may not be as grey as it is sometimes depicted. There are superb professional opportunities in most of the UK’s main cities and in the digital age the flexibility around employment and running a business mean renting or buying outside London has probably never been more attractive.”

The data gathered also indicated that 58.93% of British people believe it is financially unwise to rent, 24.69% do not view renting as unwise. Spending an average of £11,100.67 on rent, the average Briton shells out £577.64 on letting fees when renting and £587.93 in security deposits.

Of those deposits an average amount of £511.73 is recouped by renters, with 80% of people getting full rental deposits back.

Wider UK rental market data shows that 22% of households in Great Britain are now rented from private landlords, up from 9% in 1985. The average rent in the country is £761 per month including rents in London, though excluding London the average drops to £689 per month across the rest of the UK. Average monthly rent in London is now £1560.