Rent affordability calculator

The 30x rule, and why it is not an affordability test

Most letting agents use a referencing firm, and most referencing firms want to see annual gross income of around 30 times the monthly rent. Divide your salary by 30 and you have the rent they will accept. It is a convention rather than a legal threshold, and it varies between agents. Goodlord, one of the largest referencing firms, publishes 30 times for a tenant and 36 times for a guarantor, who is asked for when the tenant's own income falls short. What none of these versions do is look at what you are left with. Two people on the same gross salary can have materially different take-home pay once a student loan plan and a pension contribution are taken into account, and referencing treats them identically.

Renting with a partner or housemates

On a joint tenancy the referencing test is normally applied to the combined income, so two people each earning half of what a flat requires will usually pass together where neither would alone. Put both salaries into the calculator and it does the same thing. The part worth being careful about is that a joint tenancy is almost always joint and several: each tenant is liable for the whole rent, not their share of it, so if one person stops paying the others owe the difference. Splitting the rent evenly is a private arrangement between you, not something the tenancy recognises. If your incomes are very different, work out the split from take-home pay rather than gross, for the same reason the affordability figure uses it.

What else referencing looks at

• Employment status. A permanent contract past probation is the easy case. Fixed-term, probationary and self-employed applicants are usually asked for more: commonly a year or more of accounts or tax calculations rather than payslips.
• Credit history. A check is run, and adverse records can matter more than the income figure.
• A guarantor. The usual answer when income falls below the multiple. A guarantor is referenced at 36 times the monthly rent rather than the tenant's 30, because they are standing behind the whole rent.
• Money up front. Budget for a deposit and rent in advance on top of the monthly figure. In England the tenancy deposit is capped by the Tenant Fees Act 2019 at five weeks' rent where annual rent is under £50,000, and six weeks' where it is £50,000 to £100,000. Once the tenancy agreement is signed, a landlord can ask for a maximum of one month's rent before the tenancy starts, so the largest opening bill is normally five weeks' deposit plus a month up front.

Working backwards from a rent you have seen

If you already know the rent and want to know the salary it implies, multiply the monthly rent by 30 for the income referencing will look for. To find what that salary leaves you each month, run it through the take-home pay calculator, or the reverse tax calculator if you would rather start from the take-home figure you need and work up to the gross salary that produces it. Where you are weighing up a move, the cost of living calculator puts rent next to everything else that changes with it.

The multiples and percentages on this page are conventions and budgeting guidance, not law, and no single figure fits every household: childcare, commuting and debt repayments move the real answer around more than any rule of thumb can. What the calculator can do accurately is the tax arithmetic underneath, using the 2026/27 rates. What it cannot do is tell you what the rest of your life costs.