Cash-strapped Londoners finally have one small reason to feel smug. According to a new report from Lloyds Bank, the capital has missed out on the dubious honour of being crowned the UK’s most expensive city – but only just.
Lloyds’ annual affordability analysis, which compares average house prices with the average regional pay, revealed that Oxford is the least affordable city in the UK. The average cost of a house in the city of dreaming spires is £385,372, which is 10.7 times the average yearly earnings of £36,033. Grim reading, no?
It’s hardly surprising to learn that Greater London comes close behind, with average house prices 10.5 times the average regional salary. London has also seen the fastest hike in house prices, which have risen by 57 percent in the last five years, followed by Chelmsford (where prices are up by 55 percent.) And if that didn’t depress you enough, according to Lloyds’ reckoning, the affordability of homes is at its worst level since 2008, as the rapid leap in house prices has been matched with slower growth in wages.
As Andy Mason of Lloyds Bank puts it: ‘City living is becoming increasingly expensive. Affordability levels have worsened for four consecutive years as average house prices continue to rise more steeply than average wage growth.’ Sigh.
If you’re wondering whether you’ll ever be able to afford anything other than a Potter-esque cupboard under the stairs before you reach retirement, you might want to look North. Stirling in Scotland is ranked as the most affordable city in the UK, where the average property price is £173,847, just 3.7 times the average salary.
Londonderry and Belfast in Northern Ireland, Bradford in Yorkshire, and Durham in the North East are also ranked as affordable cities, and only one northern city have seen prices rise by more than 45 percent in five years: Salford, where prices have jumped by 51 percent.
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