London pet owners find six times more difficult to secure a rental property in comparison to smokers. Only 8% of London rental properties are allow pets while almost half of landlords welcome active smokers.

The London borough of Havering is the least welcoming to pet owners searching for a rental home, with no pet-friendly properties. Comparatively, 44% of landlords in Havering were still willing to allow smokers to rent their properties.

Similarly Sutton, in South London, has nine times the properties available to smokers than to pet owners. It’s clear that pet owners are being excluded from a huge number of rental properties.

Despite landlords not wanting to welcome pets into their properties, the Renters’ Reform Bill plans to give private tenants the ‘legal right’ to own a pet. However, it is predicted that the legislation won’t come into effect until October 2024* so animal lovers will have to contend with limited rental options.

Smoking cessation experts at Vape Club sought to discover how many Londoners were limiting their rental market choices by choosing to smoke, and how this compared to the well-covered rental challenges pet owners face, by gathering and analysing data from SpareRoom.co.uk.