{"schemaVersion":"1.0","type":"DataStory","id":"the-rent-pay-trap","title":"The rent-pay trap","description":"The same rent is a very different burden depending on where London pay lands.","introduction":"Private rents, resident earnings and short-let pressure describe different parts of one housing squeeze. The evidence below keeps their denominators separate while showing where the pressure concentrates.","category":"Housing","canonical":"https://londongraph.com/story/the-rent-pay-trap","markdown":"https://londongraph.com/story/the-rent-pay-trap/index.html.md","updatedAt":"2026-08-02T22:02:46.546Z","caveat":"Ratios of medians do not describe an individual household budget, and the ONS rent sample is not a composition-adjusted rent index.","evidence":[{"dataset":"rent-versus-pay","graphSlug":"rent-versus-pay","label":"Rent burden","text":"Two-bedroom median rent as a share of resident median annual earnings.","shape":"area","metric":"two_bedrooms_burden_percent","unit":"%","graph":"https://londongraph.com/g/rent-versus-pay","claim":{"dataset":"rent-versus-pay","graphSlug":"rent-versus-pay","label":"Rent burden","text":"Two-bedroom median rent as a share of resident median annual earnings.","headlineLabel":"Kensington and Chelsea","value":81.3,"unit":"%","period":"Private Rental Market in London: April 2025 to March 2026","comparisonLabel":"London median","comparisonValue":51.05,"caveat":null,"release":{"updatedAt":"2026-08-02T22:02:46.546Z","resourceUrl":"https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/economy/inflationandpriceindices/adhocs/3389privaterentalmarketinlondonapril2025tomarch2026/londonrentalstatsaccessibleq12026.xlsx","methodologyUrl":"https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/adhocs/3389privaterentalmarketinlondonapril2025tomarch2026","releaseLabel":"Private Rental Market in London: April 2025 to March 2026","sourcePublishedAt":null,"resourceChecksum":"48d2789987145f0d4575d6d3d5544deb3ec56ceb0746dd388a356787e46009ef"}}},{"dataset":"londons-private-rent-map","graphSlug":"londons-private-rent-map","label":"Advertised rent sample","text":"The geography of the latest ONS purposive private-rent sample.","shape":"area","metric":"two_bedrooms_median","unit":"GBP pcm","graph":"https://londongraph.com/g/londons-private-rent-map","claim":{"dataset":"londons-private-rent-map","graphSlug":"londons-private-rent-map","label":"Advertised rent sample","text":"The geography of the latest ONS purposive private-rent sample.","headlineLabel":"WC2B","value":4550,"unit":"GBP pcm","period":"Private Rental Market in London: April 2025 to March 2026","comparisonLabel":"London median","comparisonValue":2916.5,"caveat":null,"release":{"updatedAt":"2026-08-02T22:02:45.417Z","resourceUrl":"https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/economy/inflationandpriceindices/adhocs/3389privaterentalmarketinlondonapril2025tomarch2026/londonrentalstatsaccessibleq12026.xlsx","methodologyUrl":"https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/adhocs/3389privaterentalmarketinlondonapril2025tomarch2026","releaseLabel":"Private Rental Market in London: April 2025 to March 2026","sourcePublishedAt":null,"resourceChecksum":"48d2789987145f0d4575d6d3d5544deb3ec56ceb0746dd388a356787e46009ef"}}},{"dataset":"airbnb-listing-pressure","graphSlug":"short-lets-by-borough","label":"Short-let pressure","text":"Entire-home advertisements relative to Census households.","shape":"latest","unit":"per 1,000 Census households","caveat":"Listings are advertisements, not occupied nights.","graph":"https://londongraph.com/g/short-lets-by-borough","claim":null}],"sources":[{"name":"ONS / Nomis","url":"https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/adhocs/3389privaterentalmarketinlondonapril2025tomarch2026","graphSlug":"rent-versus-pay"},{"name":"Inside Airbnb / Office for National Statistics","url":"https://insideairbnb.com/get-the-data/","graphSlug":"short-lets-by-borough"}]}