A former mining town in Scotland has been revealed to be the most affordable place to buy a home in the UK.
To find the most affordable areas within Britain’s nations and regions, property specialists at Zoopla analysed house value-to-earnings ratios, based on a two-earner household on an average salary for the local area.
It found that in Cumnock in East Ayrshire to be the most affordable, along with Shildon in County Durham in the North East of England.
In both places the average house price is 1.1 times typical household earnings.
According to Zoopla, The average sold price for a property in Cumnock over the last 12 months is £138,926, with detached properties averaging £250,473.
Cumnock, which has a population of around 13,000, was supported by mining until the decline of the industry in the 1960s.
Home-buyers in a dual-salary household face paying nearly four times their income to purchase a property typically.
The property website said households where both people are working full-time typically face paying 3.8 times their average annual household income for a home.
Someone who is single faces paying 7.6 times their annual income on average to buy a home in Britain.
READ MORE:
- Home sales rise at fastest rate in Scotland in four years
- House prices in one Scottish area 'rising by £524 a week'
- Scottish houses price rise forecast doubled but rented sector warning
NAEA (National Association of Estate Agents) Propertymark president Toby Leek said: “Affordability for many is a real issue and, as purse strings remain tightened despite easing factors such as slight drops in inflation, prospective and current home-owners will be looking to enter the market with caution, but also, in some cases, further flexibility in where they nest themselves.
“As many people no longer have the restriction of basing themselves from a static office full-time, they are able to look elsewhere to actually step on to the housing ladder for the first time or find their next, more affordable dream home.”
The most affordable location in the London area was still above the national average affordability ratio for a two-earner household.
Zoopla identified Croydon as the most affordable location in the capital, with homes there costing around 4.7 times local incomes.
Izabella Lubowiecka, a senior property researcher at Zoopla, said: “London remains the least affordable area for home-buyers.
“Those in London looking to get more for their money may want to consider buying in one of the South East and East of England’s commuter belt, where there are many towns that are more affordable than London.
“The same is true in markets around many regional cities and we see buyers seeking value for money.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here