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I should think the vast majority of twenty-somethings in London on £30k+ salaries are repaying student loans, so you'll be taking the 54% figure.

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Of course - but I'm taking the top-end / maximum eligible rent, whereas the article is talking about averages, which are unlikely to be accurate in relation to what the majority of people are paying as a % of disposable.

You are assuming, of course, that landlords stick to conservative affordability limits and turn down willing tenants who fail the test, even by a small margin.

I agree this dataset is not ideal for these sort of calculations, but the figures are supported by my anecdotal experience.

I am not assuming - we reference more tenants than any other rental company in the UK and know how a reference decision impacts a tenancy going ahead (it has a massive impact). We also know how many landlords order references (again, nearly all).

I kind of wish the data presented was more thorough, but that's probably because I'm too close to the industry - the headline is certainly catchy, and the comparison over time certainly more interesting, I just wanted give a heads up about the actual % figure not being representative.

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