UK house prices: The map that shows the most affordable places to rent in Britain (and the best areas to avoid)

New data from Hometrack reveal average rental prices across Britain

New developments slowed dramatically in June (Getty)

With the rise and rise of UK house prices showing no signs of slowing down, hundreds of thousands across the country are forced to remain on the rental market. But how do you know if you’re getting a good deal?

New data released exclusively to The Independent by property market experts Hometrack reveals the average rent you should expect to pay for a two-bedroom home around the UK.

The data, compiled in the five months up to May this year, reveal that the cheapest rent in the UK is in Pendle, Lancashire, where on average renters of two-bed properties pay just £368 per month.

The most expensive places to rent in the country are unsurprisingly all in London – where a two-bed Kensington & Chelsea flat will cost you a staggering £2,970 per month.

Below, the new Hometrack data can be viewed in a map of the UK. Enter your postcode or use location services on a mobile to find precisely what the average rent is for the local authority where you live.

And the map throws up some surprisingly high rents outside of the capital. In Cambridge and Oxford, you’ll pay up to £1,200 per month, for instance – as much as the London borough of Bromley.

In Aberdeen City, the average rent is £950 per month; double that of Angus, which neighbours Aberdeenshire. And in Cardiff, you should be paying around £650 per month – dropping to just £375 in nearby Blaenau Gwent.

The data were released as Berlin became the first city in Germany to introduce a cap on what landlords can charge new tenants.

Residents in Berlin have experienced some of the fastest rent increases in the EU, and rent association chiefs say they "don’t want a situation like in London or Paris".

But Betsy Dillner, the director of Generation Rent, says such a policy could not simply be "replicated" in Britain because London rents are already so far beyond the rest of the country.

"Sitting tenants are not protected from rent rises, so it’s easier for the average rent to rise, making a cap for new tenancies pointless," she said.

"We want to see a cap on all rents with a mechanism to boost supply – landlords would be permitted to charge more as long as they paid into a local fund to build social housing."