Record numbers of homeowners are ready to let out spare bedrooms in their homes in order to bring extra cash into the household.

According to spareroom.co.uk the number of advertisements for lodgers in the first three months of 2010 increased by 31% compared with the final quarter of 2009. New advertisements from live-in landlords were up 17% last month, compared with a year earlier, showing a 55% surge on April 2008.

In fact lots of people throughout the UK struggle to pay their mortgage payments and with the mountain of personal debt; the number of homeowners looking to rent out a spare room increased.

According to Spareroom.co.uk figures, there was a 31% increase in the number of homeowners advertising for a lodger in the first quarter of 2010 (15,878) compared to the last quarter of 2009 (12,079). This is the highest ever number of live-in landlord ads placed on the website in any one quarter.

Matt Hutchinson, director of Spareroom.co.uk, said, “Millions of people across the UK are struggling to pay off their debts and maintain their mortgage payments and it won’t take much, even a small rise in interest rates, to tip them over the edge. And with unemployment still rising, and tax hikes to tackle the deficit on the cards, there are more difficulties ahead. In an effort to pre-empt looming financial problems, or to stay afloat right now, more and more people are choosing to take a lodger in to give them some crucial extra money”.

“At present, the average UK room rent per month is £381 while in London its £598. For many people this will be the difference between losing their home and keeping it,” he added.

Get a landlords’ insurance quote or an owner occupier insurance quote now from Discount Landlord Insurance.