Scotland and north of England lead in affordable towns
Data from Zoopla has revealed that the north of England and Scotland both lead in the high concentration of affordable towns. Ayrshire in the south-west of Scotland had a particularly large proportion with four out of five of the nations most affordable towns to buy a property all being in that area. Cumnock, Girvan, Saltcoats, and Ardrossan were the four.
The average price of a home in that area was valued at up to 1.26 times the annual household income in the region.
Moving south of the border, the most affordable locations in England are Shildon and Peterlee, both in County Durham, and Ashington in Northumberland. Homes there cost less than 1.4 times the local household income.
Heading further south to the capital, it’s Croydon which leads in the lowest value-to-earnings ratio with just 4.69, a relatively low amount for London. Greenwich, Barking, and Dagenham all had homes valued less than five times the average local household income.
To get the most bang for your buck, Zoopla suggests buying in a commuter town. It found 33 towns within an hour’s train journey to London that all have lower ratios than Croydon. Chatham (3.65), Southend (3.86), and Basingstoke (3.89) were the most affordable.
But it’s still Scotland that leads with 88% of towns boasting a house-value-to-earnings ratio of less than three. Only one town in the south of England, Wisbech in Cambridge, has houses with similar value ratios.
“These stark differences,” says Zoopla, “illustrate a large gap in buyers’ affordability across Great Britain.”
3% of towns in Britain have a value-to-earnings ratio that is higher than seven. Most of them are within 15 miles of the M25. This highlights how the affordability challenges in London are “spilling over” into some of the more desirable commuter towns.
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