Homebuyers in some parts of the UK will have to spend nearly 50 times their earnings to buy near work, new data reveals – while others could secure a house for under three times their income.
On average, a UK full-time worker could expect to pay around 7.8 times their annual salary buying a home in Britain in 2022 – but there is huge variation across the UK, as the latest housing affordability data from the Office for National Statistics suggests.
Here, you are able to compare how affordable your neighborhood is, discover where Brits spend the most on their own mortgage and how to choose where you can purchase a house.
Where are the UK's most and least affordable areas?
The map below shows the affordability of each local authority in Britain.
The figures show the average house price as a multiple of the average salary on the bottom. Areas in light blue would be the most affordable; areas in dark blue minimal affordable. There isn't any data for the areas in grey.
It may be unsurprising to find the least affordable places are in London and the South East of England, while you’ll have much better chance of having the ability to buy a house should you work in North West England and South Wales.
Copeland in Cumbria was revealed because the most affordable place to buy a house UK-wide, with average house prices just 2.5 times the annual salary.
Meanwhile, workers in Barrow-in-Furness, Pendle and Burnley would really need to cut back than 4 times their annual salary to purchase locally.
At the other end from the spectrum is Kensington and Chelsea, the UK's least affordable area. Here, local workers would need to spend 44.51 times their annual salary to buy a house – meaning very few people that work in el born area might have the luxury of having a property nearby.
But this isn’t the case for the whole based in london. Hop over the river to Lambeth, and properties become almost 60% cheaper. Indeed, Lambeth’s house prices measure at 14.49 times the average salary – comparatively affordable, if still prohibitive for most of us.
Tower Hamlets arrived on the scene as London’s most affordable area, with house prices in an average of 9.84 times locals’ salaries. This really is far more affordable compared to likes of Stratford-on-Avon (which came out at 10.41), Daventry (10.27) and Basildon (10.59).
So as the average wage in London will probably be greater than Daventry, for example, it’s all relative if you wish to buy a house in the region in which you work.
How much will you spend on your mortgage?
Even if you're able to afford a house inside your desired area, you should think about what your monthly mortgage repayments will be. Data from Halifax shows how much of people’s post-tax earnings was spent on monthly mortgage payments.
As along with getting the least expensive house prices, Copeland was revealed to achieve the cheapest mortgage repayments, too. Homeowners in Copeland spend just 13.2% of the income on their mortgages.
In gloomy news for Londoners, the city came out bottom again – typically, residents see 46.8% of their paychecks disappear on their mortgage every month. It goes against most lenders’ affordability tests, which locate a maximum of 35% of wages to become spent on mortgage repayments.
The least affordable mortgage title would go to Brent, in which the average resident's mortgage is eating up a huge 67.8% of the disposable earnings.
The table below shows a regional breakdown of how much people allocated to their mortgage throughout the UK within the last three months of 2022.
| Region | Monthly loan payment as % of salary, after tax |
| Scotland | 18.2% |
| Northern Ireland | 19.3% |
| North England | 20.8% |
| Yorkshire and also the Humber | 22.6% |
| North West England | 22.0% |
| Wales | 24.8% |
| East Midlands | 26.3% |
| West Midlands | 28.3% |
| East Anglia | 29.4% |
| South West England | 34.1% |
| South East England | 38.8% |
| London | 46.8% |
Source: Halifax
On a country-level, mortgage payers in Scotland and Northern Ireland see the smallest dent in their wallets, with less than a fifth of the pay being allocated to their mortgage.
Homebuyers in Wales spend around a quarter of the pay on their mortgages, though this may be skewed by prices in Cardiff.
Where can one afford to buy?
It can be difficult to obtain the right place to buy in, that’s both affordable and somewhere you want to live. Here are a few tips to help you make that important decision:
How much are you able to borrow?
Mortgage lenders will commonly lend you as much as 4.5 times your annual income to purchase a house. If you're buying with someone else, they'll use your joint income.
Some may offer you a smaller or larger loan, depending on your needs, your credit history and how a risk they deem you to definitely be.
Our borrowing calculator below can give you an idea of how much a lender will probably give you to put towards a house. Simply enter your annual income.
If purchasing a home still seems unrealistic, you may need to build up your deposit. This can lessen the amount you need to borrow, and may secure you a more favourable mortgage rate.
Which areas suit your lifestyle?
Do you'll need a short commute? Somewhere near to your friends and family? Somewhere near good schools, a park, or plenty of shops?
You'll have to take serious amounts of consider which factors are most important for you, and limit your choices after that.
If you're looking for somewhere to reside in England, you can use our area comparison tool to check local authorities with each other, or using the national average, on measures for example school Ofsted ratings, house prices as well as average life span.
Which areas match your budget?
While average prices can provide you with a general idea of just how much properties cost in certain areas, there will be lots of variation within that.
For example, if you are purchasing a three-bedroom house within an area predominantly full of flats, you may find the average price doesn't really represent the kind of property you're after.
Instead, you will need to take a look at just how much specific properties are now being listed for, and how much they've recently sold for. You can compare these figures for your own finances and see whether you likely will be able to manage to buy on the bottom.
