PRIVATE TENANTS could be shelling out £400 a month more than the person sitting next to them on the train home, according to a new map of Mersey property rents.
Station by station the graphic cost of renting a two-bedroom home is illustrated as the buy-to-let boom continues, buoyed by the housing shortage.
And more than a simple north-south divide, it shows a complex disparity between inner city, middle and outer suburban zones: what landlords in each are charging and what tenants are prepared to cough up.
The figures, based on market data supplied by online property portal Zoopla, are based on the average cost of a two-bedroom home in the postcode prefixes of each station.
As you might expect, city centre living doesn’t come cheap. Yet even within the tiny mile-and-a-half radius of the four Liverpool “loop” stations, the map shows a marked difference in what you’ll be left with at the end of each month.
Want to live in the trendy, gentrified Ropewalks or within striking distance of Intercity Lime Street? According to the map you will have to fork out an eye-watering average of £909 a month.
Yet you could save yourself more than £150 by renting out just down the road in windy Dale Street or Tithebarn Street where the average monthly cost for a Moorfields/James St pad is £750.
Or why not make like a Londoner? Just one stop up the Northern Line at Sandhills, rental prices nosedive to £440 a month.
Formby (with its Waitrose) and Hunts Cross (with its Asda) top the out-of-town the rental hotspots alongside Freshfield - all coming in at £730 a month.
Still leafy (just) south Liverpool is generally more marketable than the north end and no one will be surprised to learn that it will cost you £698 a month to rent in St Michaels or Aigburth and around 60 per cent less (£450) in Bootle or Litherland. That’s before things start to perk up again in the land of the iron men at sunny, seaside Waterloo. (£576).
Over the water, a place in tiny Capenhurst, overlooking the uranium plant, will set you back £798 a month. The four Birkenhead stations (North, Park, Conway Park and Hamilton Square) share joint bottom Wirral place at £447.
But it's Old Roan, a spit away from Switch Island, which takes last Merseyrail place – or bargain basement, depending how you look at things: there, £367 will bag you a two-bed property.
Manchester-based digital agency the Digital Media Team came up with the graphic, which is nothing to do with the Merseyrail company, saying: “The map was produced as an interest piece for residents of Merseyside and beyond, and could also be used as a guide for people wishing to rent in the area.”
Well, there is that.
*Is the map accurate? Do you live in a bargain area of Merseyside or an overpriced joke of a district blighted by scallies, snobs and landlords taking the piss? Do let us know.
No one leaves: A place in Capenhurst costs an average of £798 a month
