UK’s most and least affordable places to buy a home revealed – including the town where you need to earn just £4-an-hour
You would need to earn more than £80 per hour to get on the property ladder in the most expensive UK location.
THE UK'S most and least affordable places to buy a home have been revealed - including the stunning rural town where you need to be earn just £4-an-hour to buy a place.
Soaring property prices and a freeze on salaries means it is becoming increasingly difficult for people to get a foot on the housing ladder.
And a new online tool, developed by a national blinds maker, has now uncovered exactly how much cash you need to make to live in a certain area.
These fascinating results show you would have to pocket more than £80 per hour for the most expensive location.
Web Blinds took the average cost of houses in each of Britain’s 2,650 postcodes and worked out the mortgage repayments based on having a 20% deposit and taking a 25-year term with a 2.63% interest rate, reported
This is based on a single person working a 37.5-hour week and mortgage repayments being 35% of their income.
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The study found that the picturesque town of Ferndale in The Valleys in Wales was the cheapest place to live - as you would need to be earning just £4 an hour to get on the property ladder.
The rural old mining town, in Mid Glamorgan, has a population of just over 4,000 and is where Sky One comedy series Stella is filmed.
No fewer than seven postcodes in The Valleys were included in the most affordable UK areas to buy a property.
Local Ferndale councillor and landlord Phil Howe said that many people in Ferndale are on zero-hour contracts which prevents them taking out mortgages.
The 10 most affordable locations
- Ferndale £4.07 (income p/h)
- New Tredegar £4.44
- Treorchy £4.86
- Moor Row £5.13
- Stevenston £5.30
- Sanquhar £5.42
- Tonypandy £5.42
- Abertillery £5.46
- Mountain Ash £5.48
- Pentre £5.53
He told Wales Online: “At the moment, we have a lot of houses for sale in the Ferndale area, many more than I can ever remember as it was a much sought after area to live."
The most expensive place to live was the leafy town of Virginia Water in upmarket Surrey, where you would need to earn £84.84 per hour.
The study found that all ten of the least affordable postcodes are in London.
The 10 least affordable locations
- Virginia Water £84.84 (income p/h)
- Cobham £74.76
- Beaconsfield £70.58
- Radlett £68.75
- London £63.72
- Esher £62.13
- Gerrards Cross £61.77
- Northwood £57.81
- Chalfont St.Giles £57.77
- Ascot £56.06
Melissa Benedict, spokeswoman for Web-Blinds, said: “Being able to see in monetary figures the huge difference between what someone would need to earn to buy a property in the most and least affordable areas of the country is pretty shocking to see.
"The tool has analysed every postcode in the UK, so employers might need to prepare themselves for members of staff asking for pay rises once they’ve had a go."
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