About these guides

The figures come from one spreadsheet that is updated once a quarter. Each row holds a city, the median asking rent for a one-bedroom flat, the usual deposit in months of rent and the average commute to the centre by public transport. Nothing else is stored, and nothing in the guides is computed from anything else.

Asking rent is not the rent people pay. It is the price in adverts for flats that are currently on offer, which in a tight market sits well above what long-standing tenants pay for the flat next door. It is the right figure for someone who is searching now and the wrong one for comparing the cost of living between cities.

The text around the figures is written by hand for each city, by people who have rented there. It is opinion with reasons attached, and it dates faster than the figures do. Where a guide names a district as affordable, check the date at the foot of the page before you rely on it.

Furnished short lets, student halls and flats let through employers are left out on purpose. They follow different rules and would pull the median in directions that help nobody. The guides also say nothing about buying. Prices for buying move on a different clock and for different reasons, and a guide that mixed the two would mislead on both. If a guide and the spreadsheet disagree, the spreadsheet is right and the guide is out of date, which is exactly the kind of drift this demo exists to show.