The salary needed to buy a house in Cardiff is £62,569, according to new research.[1] Residents here require this as their average yearly salary to be able to afford to buy a property in their area. The UK average stands at £53,913.
Go.Compare Home Insurance’s salary checker tool allows buyers to see what they need to be earning to buy a property in their area, assuming that monthly mortgage repayments would make up one-third of a take-home income. Locals can also check the average house prices across various property types.
The top 10 most expensive areas
|
Location |
Salary required |
Average house price |
|
|
1 |
London |
£134,241 |
£674,698 |
|
2 |
Cambridge |
£114,629 |
£576,127 |
|
3 |
Brighton and Hove |
£108,408 |
£544,862 |
|
4 |
Oxford |
£108,256 |
£544,097 |
|
5 |
City of Edinburgh |
£89,344 |
£449,047 |
|
6 |
City of Bristol |
£86,056 |
£432,520 |
|
7 |
Worthing |
£81,810 |
£411,178 |
|
8 |
Reading |
£79,934 |
£401,748 |
|
9 |
Crawley |
£78,164 |
£392,854 |
|
10 |
Southend-on-Sea |
£77,882 |
£391,438 |
Unsurprisingly, London tops the list as the most expensive location to buy a house. The average salary needed to purchase a property in the capital has reached more than £134,000. Here, the average house price is a whopping £674,698.
Also making the top four are Cambridge, Oxford and Brighton and Hove. Buyers in these areas require salaries of over £100,000 to afford the average property. Edinburgh is the only area outside of England to make the list, coming in at fifth with an average house price of close to £450,000.
The top 10 most affordable areas
|
Location |
Salary required |
Average house price |
|
|
1 |
Burnley |
£23,244 |
£116,824 |
|
2 |
Middlesbrough |
£27,320 |
£137,311 |
|
3 |
Stoke-on-Trent |
£27,633 |
£138,886 |
|
4 |
Blackpool |
£27,946 |
£140,458 |
|
5 |
Sunderland |
£29,317 |
£147,347 |
|
6 |
City of Kingston upon Hull |
£29,695 |
£149,250 |
|
7 |
Blackburn with Darwen |
£30,422 |
£152,903 |
|
8 |
Barnsley |
£31,414 |
£157,889 |
|
9 |
Mansfield |
£31,841 |
£160,035 |
|
10 |
Doncaster |
£32,086 |
£161,265 |
The insurance comparison site also reports that Burnley in Lancashire is the cheapest area to buy a house. Prospective buyers looking to purchase a home here need a salary of just £23,244 to buy a house, which has an impressively low average price tag of £116,824.
Other affordable locations include Middlesborough, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland, Blackpool and Hull. Buyers in all of these areas require a salary of under £30,000 to get on the property ladder.
Nathan Blackler, home insurance expert at Go.Compare, said: “It’s always interesting to see the disparity in house prices across the UK, and our tool makes it simple for residents to see how these prices relate to their income. Potential buyers can use this information to discover how affordable houses are in their area – those not tied to their location might even find that moving postcodes could lead to significant long-term savings.
“But for those that aren’t able to simply switch cities to buy a property, remember that you can still find a varied range of housing in the same area, so consider looking into which locations are the most affordable in your region. For first-time buyers, remember to research what schemes are available to you too, such as shared ownership homes and the government’s First Homes scheme.”
