BREAKING up has never been harder to do. The pain and emotional stress of divorce are as intense as ever. But the financial cost of a split is getting worse.

Spiralling house prices are nothing new. Yet, just as the property boom appears to be levelling off, private rents are rocketing.

According to Belvoir Lettings, rents in York have jumped by ten per cent this year, and are set to go up by another eight per cent in 2005.

The reason? Basic market economics. Supply cannot keep up with demand, so prices are going through the roof.

This translates into all sorts of hardship. Anyone who has been through a divorce knows it is an expensive business. Those who leave the marital home often end up paying their share of its upkeep - and then must find the money for a new roof over their head.

As rents go up, that burden becomes ever more difficult to carry.

There is no easy answer to this problem. The trend which sees people marrying later and divorcing sooner is not going to go away. That is likely to increase still further the number of single-person households.

York desperately needs more, cheaper homes. As well as insisting that half of all new flats are affordable, the council must strive to ensure empty properties are renovated and reoccupied as quickly as possible.

Updated: 09:22 Tuesday, November 02, 2004