If this article is correct then UK tenants pay the highest rents in Western Europe. According to the article it costs an average of £348 a month to rent a room in a shared property in the UK. That’s 75% more than it would cost in Spain where the equivalent would cost just £199 a month. France was the second most expensive to rent a room but at and average of £285 it still worked out a lot cheaper than the UK. In Italy the average cost was £282 a month. The figures come from the flatshare website easyroommate.co.uk which says the high cost of renting a room in the UK is largely down to the lack of mortgage finance available which forces first time buyers to continue renting thus driving up demand.