Renters flip to Esher and Kilmarnock amid sky-high metropolis rents as demand in retro spots soar

Flatshare tenants priced out of rental hotspots in cities are increasingly turning to suburban commuter towns further away, research suggests. 

Esher, a Surrey commuter town approximately 30 minutes away by train from London Waterloo station, saw one of the steepest rises in demand from flatshare tenants in the past year, SpareRoom said. 

Annually, there has been a 32 per cent increase in demand for flatshare rental properties in Esher. 

Amid high demand, there are 11.2 people searching per room available to rent in Esher, according to the research. 

Esher is an expensive location to live in. At the top end of the market, Rightmove is showing houses to rent for £6,000 per month, or £1,385 a week. 

At the more affordable end of the market, there are currently smaller properties in Esher to rent from around £1,278 per month, current Rightmove listings show. 

The Scottish town of Kilmarnock, around 40 minutes away from Glasgow, saw the biggest yearly spike in flatshare rental demand.

During the period, Kilmarnock saw a 100 per cent rise in demand from flatshare tenants, SpareRoom said. 

Current listings on Rightmove show one-bedroom flats available to rent from around £500 per week, rising to at least £550 per week for two-bedroom flats. 

Seven people are now searching for every room available to rent in Kilmarnock, SpareRoom said. 

According to its analysis, the average room rent in Kilmarnock in 2025 was £588 per month, saving the average flatsharer around £1,000 a year compared to renting in Glasgow.

Last year, the average rent for a room in Glasgow was £683 per month, according to the analysis. 

Motherwell and Paisley, where many people who commute to Glasgow live, also featured. 

Demand in Motherwell, to the south east of Glasgow, has risen by a third and in Paisley, to the west of the city, by 16 per cent. 

According to SpareRoom, rising and high demand in Greater London, including in Kingston-upon-Thames, Twickenham and Barnet, as well as parts of the south east within commuting distance of the capital like Horsham, are a knock-on effect of average rents in London having risen 37 per cent in five years. 

Tenants in Liverpool have seen rents rise by 40 per cent in the last five years to hit a record high of £555 per month in the last quarter of 2025, SpareRoom said.

Now, two towns on its edges, Birkenhead and Widnes, have seen sharp rises in demand among flatshare tenants year-on-year. 

Widnes now has the third highest demand in Britain, with 10.2 people searching per room available to rent.

In the Midlands, West Bromwich, where 10.5 people are searching per room, Halesowen, Smethwick, Kidderminster and Sutton Coldfield have seen some of the highest demand for rooms to rent in Britain.

Conversely, flatshare tenant demand in Birmingham dropped 22 per cent in the past year, with 2.8 people searching per room available, SpareRoom said.   

Flatshare ‘sprawl’ on the increase  

Flatsharing is still largely concentrated in urban areas. In a March 2025 survey of 6,524 flatsharers by SpareRoom, 58 per cent of tenants described the area they lived in as urban. 

But 30 per cent said they were flatsharing in suburbia, with the remaining 12 per cent living in a semi-rural or rural location.

Matt Hutchinson, director of flatshare site SpareRoom, said: ‘City living was once to flatsharers what suburban living was to families with 2.4 children. 

‘But the tides are turning. Given how high rents are now compared to where they were five years ago, people are faced with no choice but to chase affordability. It’s not an urban exodus, but it’s certainly flatshare sprawl.

‘When even flatsharers are turning away from major cities, you know there’s a huge problem with affordability. 

‘More renters migrating to cheaper towns puts upward pressure on rents. 

‘These towns won’t be affordable much longer and then where do people go? Quite soon renters will simply be out of options. It’s bad for the economy too which relies on a flexible workforce. If people can’t take advantage of new job opportunities, everyone loses.’