Average rent is the equivalent of a house deposit in five years

A typical tenant in a two-bed property in England will have paid over £40,000 in rent in the past five years - almost enough to fund a deposit on a home to buy, claims Shelter.

The charity says the typical rental total of £41,196 is only around £2,000 less than a 20 per cent down payment on an average first-time buyer home, priced at £216,500.

Someone paying private rent on an average two-bedroomed property in London would have paid more than £89,000 in five years, says Shelter, with more expensive boroughs like Hammersmith & Fulham, Islington and Camden, having typical rental totals over £100,000.

Using government statistics the charity says that living in an average privately rented home in Manchester would have meant paying out more than £40,000 over five years. In Bristol the rent paid would be nearly £48,000, and in Sheffield it would be more than £32,000.

Shelter has issued a regional breakdown of the rent paid for a two-bed property. 

The list below gives the five-year rental figure, then the price of an average first time buyer home, and finally the percentage of the cost of the property which the rent would have covered: 

London - £89,269; £394,905; 23%

South East - £47,421; £257,258; 18%

East - £38,906; £226,636; 17%

South West - £38,137; £195,672; 19%

West Midlands - £32,313; £156,548; 21%

North West - £30,930; £141,852; 22%

East Midlands - £30,488; £149,642; 20%

Yorkshire and the Humber - £29,808; £141,584; 21%

North East - £27,476; £123,047; 22%