Kingston-upon-Hull is the most affordable city in Britain, with 92% of properties currently for sale there below the UK average house price. According to research by online estate agents HouseSimple.com, out of the 1063 properties for sale, 530 are below £100,000. Only three other towns have more than 90% of properties for sale at asking […]
Kingston-upon-Hull is the most affordable city in Britain, with 92% of properties currently for sale there below the UK average house price.
According to research by online estate agents HouseSimple.com, out of the 1063 properties for sale, 530 are below £100,000.
Only three other towns have more than 90% of properties for sale at asking prices below the UK average – Birkenhead (91.8%), Kilmarnock (91.8%) and Middlesbrough (90.2%).
There is good news for buyers in Grimsby, with 57% of properties for sale under £100,000.
Unsurprisingly, London is the least affordable city in the UK. Outside of London, least affordable areas include Brighton, Bath, Guildford, Tunbridge Wells and Crawley where less than 10% of properties for sale are below the UK average house price.
In Bath, just 6.8% of properties being marketed are priced lower than the UK average.
Soaring house prices and sluggish wage growth mean that housing affordability is declining in many areas of the UK, especially in the South East.
Since last year’s Brexit vote, consumers have also faced a loss in spending power as a result of rising inflation following a fall in the pound.
Alex Gosling, CEO of online estate agents HouseSimple.com, said: “The lack of affordable properties in the UK has become a recurring theme as house prices have continued to rise. So, it will probably come as a surprise to many people, that there are still major towns and cities where almost every property for sale is below the UK average house price.
“Average salaries in these areas may still restrict people from buying a property but at least there’s a pool of properties that someone with a small deposit could afford. And towns such as Hull and Grimsby offer hope to the many first-time buyers trying to climb on the property ladder, with more than half of the current stock on the market below £100,000.
“The picture is very different in the south of England and Bath and Brighton are classic examples. Both are extremely popular cities, particularly for Londoners wanting to move out and enjoy a better quality of life. But prices have rocketed as a result and moved away from many buyers. Less than 10% of properties in these cities are below the average UK property price, and properties under £100k are almost extinct. First-time buyers, unless they have help from parents, are facing the prospect of holding off buying until well into their 30s, if at all.”
The most affordable UK towns and cities ranked in order of the number of properties for sale that below the average house price
| Town/City | Region | Total number of properties for sale |
Number of properties below £100k |
Number of properties below UK average* |
% below average house price |
| Hull | Yorkshire | 1063 | 530 | 977 | 91.9% |
| Birkenhead | North West | 268 | 147 | 246 | 91.8% |
| Kilmarnock | Scotland | 202 | 106 | 182 | 90.1% |
| Middlesbrough | North East | 662 | 320 | 596 | 90.0% |
| Burnley | North West | 589 | 291 | 524 | 89.0% |
| Grimsby | Yorkshire | 295 | 169 | 261 | 88.5% |
| Bradford | Yorkshire | 1383 | 625 | 1220 | 88.2% |
| Wigan | North West | 437 | 159 | 384 | 87.9% |
| Neath | Wales | 754 | 318 | 656 | 87.0% |
| Blackpool | North West | 1328 | 515 | 1155 | 87.0% |
| Stoke | W Midlands | 1327 | 583 | 1144 | 86.2% |
| Sunderland | North East | 622 | 312 | 530 | 85.2% |
| Merthyr Tydfil | Wales | 256 | 146 | 216 | 84.4% |
| Darlington | North East | 488 | 239 | 410 | 84.0% |
| Doncaster | Yorkshire | 857 | 306 | 720 | 84.0% |
| Scunthorpe | Yorkshire | 335 | 111 | 281 | 83.9% |
The least affordable UK towns and cities ranked in order of the number of properties for sale below the average house price in the UK
| Town/City | Region | Total no. properties for sale |
No. of properties below £100k |
% below £100k |
No. of properties below UK average* |
%
below average house price |
| London | London | 25000+ | 151 | 0.6% | 1037 | 4.2% |
| Bath | South West | 381 | 5 | 1.3% | 26 | 6.8% |
| Guildford | South East | 271 | 1 | 0.4% | 19 | 7.0% |
| Crawley | South East | 362 | 1 | 0.3% | 32 | 8.8% |
| Tunbridge Wells | South East | 299 | 3 | 1.0% | 27 | 9.0% |
| Brighton | South East | 632 | 4 | 0.6% | 60 | 9.5% |
