Business and Financial News

The number of people looking to rent out a spare room has risen 27% in the last year

The recession has hit us all in the pocket, and more and more people are thinking of ingenious ways to make some extra cash.
If you own your own property, one easy way to increase your revenue stream is to rent out any rooms that are going to waste.
And research has found this is just what many people have been doing, with figures showing the number of homeowners looking to rent out a spare room since the beginning of the year has jumped 27%.
House share website Spareroom.com said 2,487 people had placed adverts on its website looking for lodgers during the first two weeks of January, 27% more than during the same period of 2009.
It said the number of adverts posted since the beginning of January was already higher than during the whole of December last year.
Two-thirds of people who are looking to take in a lodger said it was because their finances were overstretched, and the extra cost of Christmas had forced them to take action.
The group said it had seen a record number of people advertising for lodgers during 2009, and it expected the trend to continue this year.
The average weekly rent charged for a room in a shared property is currently £87, the equivalent of £4,524 a year, the first £4,250 of which is tax-free under the Government’s rent-a-room scheme.

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