Zoopla has compiled league tables of the most affordable locations in Britain.<\/p>\n
The portal says that on average, two earners looking to buy a home can still expect to pay 4.4 times their average combined annual earnings \u2013 slightly lower than 4.5 times in 2024 \u2013 but areas like Scotland and the North East of England offer much better value.<\/p>\n
To calculate which areas are the most affordable, Zoopla analysed house price-to-earnings ratios, based on a two-earner household on average earnings for the local area and compared this to the average house price in the same area.<\/p>\n
A clear North-South divide<\/strong><\/p>\n The most affordable town to buy a home in all of Great Britain is Shildon in the North East. An average home in the town in County Durham costs just over a year\u2019s combined pay for two household earners, with median home value standing at just \u00a373,900.<\/p>\n Ten most affordable towns in the UK<\/strong><\/p>\n Source: Zoopla<\/p>\n The findings reveal a striking geographic polarisation in UK housing affordability. Scotland dominates the list of the UK\u2019s most affordable towns, claiming a remarkable seven of the ten spots whilst the remaining three positions are secured by the North East of England.\u00a0<\/p>\n Conversely, the market\u2019s disparity is underscored by the bottom of the list, with eight of the ten least affordable towns located in the South East of England.<\/p>\n At the other end of the affordability spectrum, Beaconsfield, in Buckinghamshire, tops the list as the least affordable UK town with a house price-to-earnings ratio of 15.25 \u2013 meaning a median priced home costs more than 15 times the estimated average household income, at \u00a31,112,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n Other towns that are least affordable to average earners include Gerrards Cross and Esher, both located in the South East and within commutable distance to London. With house price-to-earnings ratios in these areas topping even the most expensive London boroughs, homebuyers are paying a premium for quiet countryside locations, a stone\u2019s throw from the capital.<\/p>\n Most affordable town in each region\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Source: Zoopla<\/p>\n Furthermore, the list of most affordable towns in each region of the UK highlights the scale of the affordability pressures on potential homeowners in the South of England.\u00a0<\/p>\n For instance, even in the most affordable towns in the South East and South West \u2013 Dover and Cinderford \u2013 a median-priced home still demands that prospective buyers can afford more than three and a half times their annual combined salary.\u00a0<\/p>\n This ratio underscores the affordability challenge for those on single earner incomes in even the most competitively priced areas of Southern England. The cost of home ownership is also a key factor behind the rapid rise in rents across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n Most affordable options for Londoners<\/strong><\/p>\n In London, there is a huge range in house price-to-earnings ratios.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tower Hamlets tops the list for affordability in the capital, with a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.97 reflecting higher incomes of those who live locally and a large supply of apartments in the local area.\u00a0 However, the affordability of homes in Tower Hamlets is still four times worse than the most affordable areas of the UK like Shildon in the North East.\u00a0<\/p>\n In line with general trends, the majority of the affordable boroughs in London are found in Outer London. However, three Inner London boroughs \u2013 Tower Hamlets, Southwark and Lambeth \u2013 are exceptions to this. Whilst property prices in these areas are still relatively high, the area boasts above-average local earnings and a greater quantity of homes \u2013 largely dominated by flats.\u00a0<\/p>\n These factors combine to lower the house price-to-earnings ratio, bringing it more in line with Outer London boroughs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Most affordable London boroughs<\/strong><\/p>\n Source: Zoopla<\/p>\n Richard Donnell, Executive Director at Zoopla comments:\u00a0\u201cTo have the most affordable town, Shildon in the North East, requiring barely more than one year\u2019s local pay, contrasted against Beaconsfield where the cost is over 15 times average earnings, shows the challenges facing those looking to move home.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHomes are most affordable across Scotland and the North East, but within these regions are pockets where affordability is a challenge. For those looking to buy in the South, there are areas which offer reasonably priced homes compared to local incomes, but there are large areas where homes are only affordable to those on higher incomes or with larger deposits.<\/p>\n \u201cThe affordability of home ownership and the cost of moving are big considerations for those planning their next move. The days of most people moving within five miles of where they live are over.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe can see that a growing number of buyers are having to look further afield to find better value for money and they need the tools to make informed buying decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zoopla has compiled league tables of the most affordable locations in Britain. The portal says that on average,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,53972,1144,712,16,40170,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-591857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-housing-shortage-affordability","14":"tag-northern-ireland","15":"tag-scotland","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-uk-property-market-analysis","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115607745776346547","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n Town<\/strong><\/td>\n Region<\/strong><\/td>\n Median home value<\/strong><\/td>\n Estimated annual household income<\/strong><\/td>\n House value-to-earnings ratio<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 1: Shildon<\/td>\n North East<\/td>\n \u00a373,800<\/td>\n \u00a360,300<\/td>\n 1.23<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 2: Cumnock<\/td>\n Scotland<\/td>\n \u00a383,700<\/td>\n \u00a367,200<\/td>\n 1.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 3: Saltcoats<\/td>\n Scotland<\/td>\n \u00a396,500<\/td>\n \u00a370,400<\/td>\n 1.37<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 4: Ardrossan<\/td>\n Scotland<\/td>\n \u00a3100,050<\/td>\n \u00a370,400<\/td>\n 1.42<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 5: Peterlee<\/td>\n North East<\/td>\n \u00a385,900<\/td>\n \u00a360,300<\/td>\n 1.42<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 6: Irvine<\/td>\n Scotland<\/td>\n \u00a3101,100<\/td>\n \u00a370,400<\/td>\n 1.44<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 7: Kilwinning<\/td>\n Scotland<\/td>\n \u00a3102,600<\/td>\n \u00a370,400<\/td>\n 1.46<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 8: Ferryhill<\/td>\n North East<\/td>\n \u00a392,500<\/td>\n \u00a360,300<\/td>\n 1.53<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 9: Girvan<\/td>\n Scotland<\/td>\n \u00a3107,300<\/td>\n \u00a369,000<\/td>\n 1.56<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 10: Clydebank<\/td>\n Scotland<\/td>\n \u00a3105,800<\/td>\n \u00a364,900<\/td>\n 1.63<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Region<\/strong><\/td>\n Town<\/strong><\/td>\n Median home value<\/strong><\/td>\n Estimated annual household income<\/strong><\/td>\n House price-to-earnings ratio<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n North East<\/td>\n Shildon<\/td>\n \u00a373,900<\/td>\n \u00a360,300<\/td>\n 1.23<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Scotland<\/td>\n Cumnock<\/td>\n \u00a383,700<\/td>\n \u00a367,200<\/td>\n 1.25<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Wales<\/td>\n Ferndale<\/td>\n \u00a3105,300<\/td>\n \u00a360,500<\/td>\n 1.74<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n North West<\/td>\n Workington<\/td>\n \u00a3123,300<\/td>\n \u00a368,700<\/td>\n 1.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Yorkshire and the Humber<\/td>\n Mexborough<\/td>\n \u00a3152,000<\/td>\n \u00a363,200<\/td>\n 2.41<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n East Midlands<\/td>\n Gainsborough<\/td>\n \u00a3171,600<\/td>\n \u00a362,400<\/td>\n 2.75<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n West Midlands<\/td>\n Newcastle- Under-Lyme<\/td>\n \u00a3182,200<\/td>\n \u00a363,300<\/td>\n 2.88<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n South West<\/td>\n Cinderford<\/td>\n \u00a3253,800<\/td>\n \u00a374,300<\/td>\n 3.42<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n South East<\/td>\n Dover<\/td>\n \u00a3242,500<\/td>\n \u00a368,400<\/td>\n 3.55<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n East of England<\/td>\n Great Yarmouth<\/td>\n \u00a3210,300<\/td>\n \u00a358,500<\/td>\n 3.6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n London<\/td>\n Tower Hamlets<\/td>\n \u00a3455,400<\/td>\n \u00a391,700<\/td>\n 4.97<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Borough<\/strong><\/td>\n Median home value<\/strong><\/td>\n Estimated annual household income<\/strong><\/td>\n House price-to-earnings ratio<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Tower Hamlets<\/td>\n \u00a3455,400<\/td>\n \u00a391,700<\/td>\n 4.97<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Croydon<\/td>\n \u00a3423,400<\/td>\n \u00a377,300<\/td>\n 5.48<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Greenwich<\/td>\n \u00a3448,800<\/td>\n \u00a381,200<\/td>\n 5.53<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Lewisham<\/td>\n \u00a3448,100<\/td>\n \u00a380,200<\/td>\n 5.59<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Southwark<\/td>\n \u00a3491,500<\/td>\n \u00a387,300<\/td>\n 5.63<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Havering<\/td>\n \u00a3467,900<\/td>\n \u00a382,700<\/td>\n 5.66<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Barking and Dagenham<\/td>\n \u00a3391,100<\/td>\n \u00a366,800<\/td>\n 5.86<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Lambeth<\/td>\n \u00a3522,400<\/td>\n \u00a388,600<\/td>\n 5.89<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Merton<\/td>\n \u00a3530,600<\/td>\n \u00a388,300<\/td>\n 6.12<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Bromley<\/td>\n 546,100<\/td>\n 89,300<\/td>\n 6.12<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n