Hi all, My partner and I are hoping to rent a studio or 1-bed in London later this summer. I work full time on £35k, and my partner is a student with a part-time job and student loan.

The challenge we’re running into is that my income doesn’t meet the standard affordability checks for most agencies alone, and their income doesn’t add much toward that either.

We’ve been told we’d need a guarantor earning 36x the monthly rent (or 3x annual). However, none of our UK based family earn that much alone (based off £1700 avg), and both of our parents are based abroad, so we assume they wouldn’t be accepted.

Just wondering:

• How flexible are landlords typically with guarantor requirements?
• Would someone who is retired but a UK homeowner ever be accepted? Or even a homeowner who earns under the income threshold but is financially stable?
• Would two guarantors be okay (one for each of us)?
• Are guarantor companies like Housing Hand commonly accepted?
• And if we can’t meet the guarantor criteria, is paying 6 months upfront our only viable option?

Really appreciate any insight, we’re trying to understand what’s realistically possible before we start applying. Thanks in advance!