Enter your income to see the highest rent it supports, or enter a rent to see the income it needs. Choose the rule: the letting agents’ check of an annual income of 30 times the monthly rent, the Office for National Statistics benchmark of 30% of income, or your own limit. The calculator also gives the largest deposit the law allows in England, Scotland or Northern Ireland, and what you pay before moving in.
Find your maximum rent or check a rent
‘My maximum rent’ starts from your income and gives the highest monthly rent the rule accepts. ‘Check a rent’ starts from an advert: enter the rent and you get the income the rule asks for, a year and a month. Add your income to see the share of it the rent takes and what is left.
Which income to enter
Add up the income of everyone who will sign the tenancy, before tax: pay, self-employed profits and other regular income. Letting agents and the ONS both work on gross income. You can enter a yearly or a monthly figure.
The two rules
Neither is a law. Slough Borough Council explains that letting agents expect your annual income to be around 30 times the monthly rent, which keeps the rent to no more than 40% of your gross monthly income, and that a landlord may ask for a guarantor if you are close to that limit. The ONS counts rent as affordable when it takes 30% or less of a household’s gross income, while noting that there is no widely accepted standard. In 2024, renters on a median income would have spent 36.3% of it on an average rent in England (41.6% in London), 25.9% in Wales and 25.3% in Northern Ireland.
Deposits across the UK
In England a tenancy deposit is capped at 5 weeks’ rent when the annual rent is under £50,000, and at 6 weeks’ rent from £50,000; one week’s rent is the annual rent divided by 52. A holding deposit is capped at one week’s rent, and tenancies with an annual rent above £100,000 are outside these rules. In Wales only the holding deposit is capped, at one week’s rent, which the Welsh Government works out as the monthly rent divided by 4.35. In Scotland the deposit is capped at 2 months’ rent, and in Northern Ireland at 1 month’s rent since 1 April 2023.
Rent in advance in England
Since 1 May 2026, for assured tenancies in England, a landlord cannot ask for or accept rent before the tenancy agreement is signed. Between signing and the start of the tenancy, the landlord can ask for the first month’s rent; after that, rent is due only on the dates in the agreement. So the first payment is at most the first month’s rent plus the deposit.
Maximum rent = annual income ÷ 30 (letting agents’ check) or monthly income × 30% (ONS benchmark), rounded down to the penny.
Income needed = 30 × monthly rent a year, or monthly rent ÷ 30% a month, rounded up to the penny.
Maximum deposit in England = 5 × (monthly rent × 12 ÷ 52), or 6 × when the annual rent is £50,000 or more, rounded down to the penny.
Other amounts are rounded to the nearest penny.
Example: £25,000 a year, then a £1,040 rent in England
At 30 times the rent, £25,000 a year supports £25,000.00 ÷ 30 = £833.33 a month, Slough Borough Council’s ‘around £830’. A flat at £1,040.00 a month needs 30 × £1,040.00 = £31,200.00 a year. Its annual rent is £12,480.00, so one week’s rent is £12,480.00 ÷ 52 = £240.00, the deposit is capped at 5 × £240.00 = £1,200.00, as in the government’s own example, and the first payment is £1,040.00 + £1,200.00 = £2,240.00.
