Benefits claimants can live in large properties in affluent areas of London for as little as £750 per month, it has emerged.

Social housing tenants are using HomeSwapper to advertise their properties to trade with other claimants, which enables them to move home legitimately without a complex reallocation process via their council.

Not all residents of social housing are benefit claimants, with many in employment, but the site has highlighted the large disparity between private renters and social tenants in Britain's most expensive city.

Homes are available for as little as £650 per month for a one-bedroom house, and cost on average a third of the market price.

And the size of properties available to rent far below private rates are substantial - a seven-bedroom terraced house in Brixton is advertised for just £744 per month.

By comparison, two-bedroom flats in Brixton, south London, are regularly marketed for between £2,000 and £2,500 per month on private rental site Rightmove.

The Daily Mail found most properties on Home Swapper are marketed at £150-£200 per week in some of London's most affluent areas, including Notting Hill, Battersea and Brixton. 

In Brixton, one three-bedroom house is currently on offer for £780 per month. The description shows it has a front and back garden and gated parking.

Other terraced three-bed properties available privately in the area start from £3,300 per month.

Ben Hopkinson, from the think-tank Centre for Policy Studies, claimed the system 'effectively incentivises you to not have a job'.

Others point to social housing as a lifeline for the vulnerable or those unable to be in employment.

Social housing is generally managed by a borough council or housing association contracted through the council, and offer properties at prices far below market levels.

Although prices are set based on factors including size, location and value of the property, the last valuations were done in 1999, making them 27 years out of date. 

According to the Centre for Policy Studies, around £9 billion is spent each year in London alone to keep social rents at low prices.

And due to the relative expense of living in London, claimants in the city receive much larger discounts than those elsewhere.

The average weekly rent for new social housing tenancies in London in the 2024-5 financial year were £151, around a third of regional private rents, government data shows. 

But in the northeast of England, social housing tenants pay around 70 per cent of local private rent costs. 

Experts have pointed to caps on the amount social rent can be increased each year as a factor in the huge disparity in price.

The cap has often been less than the average rise in private rental prices in recent years, meaning the difference between the private and social sectors has risen over time.

In 2024, it was estimated that around 17 percent of households in England, 4.3 million, live in social housing.

A government spokesman said: 'We're building more social housing to help hard-working families and lift children out of poverty and homelessness. This is alongside taking steps to reduce disparities between rents paid for social homes in different areas.'