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29 March 2024

Which UK city offers most affordable flats?

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By Staff

The UK’s northern cities offer young professionals a much greater chance of getting on the housing ladder despite lower starting salaries, Knight Frank research reveals.

The examination of affordability, which measures house prices to regional average earnings for those aged between 22 and 39, shows how house price to earnings ratios vary across the country.

According to the study of 25 cities across the UK, Durham is the most affordable city to buy a home, followed closely by Nottingham and Liverpool. The most affordable city in the south is Hastings, closely followed by Canterbury.

Grainne Gilmore, Head of UK Residential research, says: “London holds a lure for graduates and young professionals as job creation is higher in the Capital than elsewhere. But graduate vacancies are starting to rise across the UK on the back of stronger economic performance. Our snapshot of some key UK cities shows that for young people keen to buy a home, their ability to climb onto the ladder is greater if they move to the North of England, even if their comparable earnings are more modest than those living in the South.”

In Scotland, the annual salary for the three cities is higher than the majority of the cities in England, at £27,938.  This therefore makes Glasgow an affordable alternative with average house prices at £124,496, ranked at 4.5. Both Aberdeen and Edinburgh are less affordable at 7.4 and 7.7 but, as Ran Morgan, Head of Knight Frank Scotland explains: “Both Aberdeen and Edinburgh have unique qualities which is why they might command more of a premium. Aberdeen’s oil business and long and sandy coastline and Edinburgh’s UNESCO status attracts Londoners and overseas buyers too.”

Prices to rise

Meanwhile, property firm Savills said that UK house prices will be up 9.5 this year, but the strength of increases this year means that in London the market may flatline in 2016.

The firm had earlier expected a 6.5 per cent price increase in 2014, but has now said that growth “exceeded all expectations”.

In London, where the major house price indices all showed annual growth of around 20% at the start of the summer, Savills said it expected the rate over the year to hit 15%, far in excess of the 8.5 per cent it had originally forecast.

In London, Savills expects prices to rise by 5 per cent in 2015 and not by the previous forecast of 6 per cent, and expected to remain flat in 2016 as against a four per cent increase earlier expected.

(Home page image courtesy Shutterstock)