We've Got Bad News For UK Renters...

...But there could be a way round it

Living in the UK has never been a picnic as far as rental costs go - but new reports are showing that rental prices are at record highs.

Tenants now must fork out an average of nearly £600 a year extra in order to rent a property in the UK, with the average of renting in England and Wales costing £816 a month, and people in the capital now having to pay over £1,300 a month - a rise of 11.6% on the same period last year.

This isn't great news for our bank balance, to put it mildly.

The worrying report, complied by agents Reeds Rain and Your Move, showed that rents have jumped by an average of between 6.3% and 8.5% in the last year.

'Rents are rising strongly in real terms due to the recent acceleration in wages and the much deeper and longer-term shortage of available properties across the UK,' said Adrian Gill of Your Move and Reeds Rains. 'The cost of a place to live has now uncoupled from the cost of living.'

However, there is a way you can live in the capital for just £1 a month, if you look hard enough - and even in a swanky double room with unlimited internet and even a garden.

Adam Mughal, a mobile and web developer, recently put a bedroom in his five-bed Stratford house on Easy Roommate - and it costs just £1 a month.

The catch? You have to be happy to work part-time with him to help him build a web application. He's had thousands of people contacting him to snap up the room, and it seems to be part of a growing trend in trading skills for rent.

Sounds like a good deal to us, especially with these ridiculous rent prices.

But if you're not a technology whizz, could it be time to pack up your things and move to somewhere sunnier and cheaper? We think so...