Sheffield Rent: Rent prices leap 12.5% on previous year - with student population to blame

Figures obtained from Zoopla reveal the average rent in Sheffield in December 2022 was £772, a hefty 12.5 per cent increase on the previous year. The increase puts Sheffield above the national average, along with other northern cities like Manchester and Glasgow, which Zoopla figures show to be just below Sheffield at 12 per cent.

Daniel Copley, Consumer Spokesperson at Zoopla, said: “This reflects a wider UK trend of rents growing fastest in regional cities such as Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and of course, Sheffield. This is due to the demand/supply imbalance in these urban centres over the past year which is underpinned by large student populations and the fact that all these cities are major regional employers.”

The student property market involves a lot of change, with tenants often staying in a property for a single academic year, before moving to another. There could be more or less students as each year passes, meaning some student rentals could remain empty each year.

Sheffield’s increase dwarfs the price rise in South Yorkshire’s other city by more than four per cent. The average rent price in Doncaster was £620 in December 2022, with a year on year increase of 8.3 per cent. Based on Mr Copley’s analysis of rental growth in Sheffield, the fact Doncaster doesn’t have a large student population could explain the disparity in average rents between the two cities.