For centuries, British homeowners have relied on lodgers to keep them on the property ladder, we’ve just failed to recognise their importance.

When you hear the word ‘lodger’ what springs to mind? Depending on your age it might be Jez from Peep Show, Spike from Notting Hill, Rigsby from Rising Damp or The Fonz from Happy Days.

Lodgers have long been a feature of Britain’s housing landscape, and that’s still true today. If you’re looking for somewhere to rent, there’s a one-in-four chance you’ll end up being a lodger, with just over a quarter of all UK room ads on SpareRoom posted by homeowners looking to rent out their empty bedrooms.

The high cost of living coupled with generous tax-breaks for those earning money from renting out rooms in their homes have made sure lodging has never gone away.

But where did it all begin? Lodgers aren’t a new thing. People have been doing this for centuries.

Mozart and his family were lodgers at 20 Frith Street in Soho in 1764, when the child prodigy was just eight-years-old. The Mozarts were lodgers of corset maker Thomas Williamson.

And lodgers are a feature of Charles Dickens’ works written throughout the 1800s, including David Copperfield, published in 1849:

“I shall never, Master Copperfield,” said Mrs. Micawber, “revert to the period when Mr. Micawber was in difficulties, without thinking of you. Your conduct has always been of the most delicate and obliging description. You have never been a lodger. You have been a friend.”

Other famous London lodgers include Lord Byron, Jonathan Swift, John Constable and Mary Wollstonecraft. But, of course, there was no SpareRoom back then. To find a room, it was either word of mouth, or walk the streets in a likely area looking for a ‘to let’ card in the window and knocking at the door to ask to view, says Gillian Williamson, author of Lodgers, Landlords, and Landladies in Georgian London (Bloomsbury).

Williamson notes the first national census to list lodgers was 1851, when the relationship of residents to the head of the household had to be given. Lodgers were present in 12% – one in eight – of households and accounted for 5% of the total population. But pre-census, lodgers were already a firm fixture in urban life.

Williamson told us: “It was estimated by one contemporary, Gregory King, that there were almost 40,000 lodgers in London in 1694 – a population larger than the entire population of the then second city, Norwich.”

Williamson has found records of lodgers, often called ‘sojourners’, in late sixteenth-century London, which also saw rapid population growth combined with legal restrictions on new building. And, in 1604, William Shakespeare was lodging at a house in Silver Street, near St Giles Cripplegate owned by the Mountjoys who made women’s headdresses.

Burgeoning service industries in the late nineteenth century further fuelled the rise of the lodger. A post on Radical Stroud describes the scene:

“Shabby-genteel clerks, commercial salesmen, shop assistants, typists, secretaries, and so on, were occupations that accelerated in number in the heyday of Victorian and Edwardian imperialism. You got a wage but you needed a room to rent – and you lodged with families who were themselves struggling with bills.”

But it was in the aftermath of the Second World War when lodgers were cemented as a staple of the housing landscape. Bombing, of course, had a huge effect on the availability of housing. More than two million homes were badly damaged or destroyed across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile, housebuilding ground to a halt, birth rates increased significantly and those whose homes had been undamaged by the war – often women whose husbands had been killed or returned home unable to work – found renting out rooms the simplest way to make a living and meet huge demand for accommodation.

Without lodgers, more homeownership dreams would have resulted in failure. And without homeowners, rental supply would be even lower, and rents even higher.

Why do people still take in lodgers today?

Fast forward to 2025, and the number of homeowners taking in lodgers is rising – by 38% over the past three years.

Why? In these times of financial hardship and job insecurity, more households are in need of a reliable side income. Some bought homes when low fixed-rate mortgage deals were easy to come by but, at the point of re-mortgaging, found the lowest-available rates were much higher, and would have consumed any disposable income.

Taking in a lodger can go a long way towards helping with mortgage payments, especially with the government’s Rent a Room Scheme allowing people to earn up to £7,250 per year tax free by renting out a room. This is something SpareRoom campaigned for over six-years, finally succeeding in 2015.

Others enjoy the company or help around the house, while some travel regularly for work and like the security of having someone to look after their home, and their pets, while they’re away.

Who takes in lodgers?

Perhaps the typical image of a so-called ‘live-in landlord’ are the empty nesters whose adult children have moved out. But there are plenty of younger homeowners in their 30s who’ve managed to get on the property ladder but need to rent out that second bedroom in their two-bed flat to be able to afford anything beyond the mortgage repayments.

And don’t forget those well into their retirement years who don’t need care but do need a bit of assistance around the house and garden. Many charge lower rent in exchange for some regular help, so it’s a win-win.

Williamson points out the continuity between lodging past and present, which remains to this day a private matter between the host and the lodger. She explains: “Parties can negotiate the price and other terms to suit their circumstances and renegotiate them if these change. In the past those terms might have stipulated whether the household servants would service the room, who was paying for coal and kindling, whether meals were provided, whether the lodger could use the parlour or the kitchen, under what circumstances they could entertain guests. All these terms have their equivalents today.”

What’s in it for the lodger?

For renters, living with your landlord is, on average, 11% cheaper than renting from a traditional landlord, and 17% cheaper in London, according to SpareRoom data. When people are struggling to afford to live because wage increases haven’t kept pace with rent rises, knowing smart ways to cut the cost of renting is helpful.

If something goes wrong around the home – the washing machine breaks or a faulty fire alarm won’t stop going off – the owner’s there to fix it, and is likely to do so speedily, as they’re affected too.

Lodgers don’t have the same rights or protections as tenants though; this is an arrangement the homeowner has full control over.

So what’s next for the lodger-homeowner relationship? Time will tell. We’d like to see higher tax-breaks for homeowners who rent rooms to lodgers, to reflect today’s rents, and to ease the housing crisis. The rental market is in dire need of supply.

But one thing’s for sure: as long as there are people in need of the income, and those in need of cheaper rents, there will be lodgers.