No longer just a safe space for those who didn't get into Oxford or Cambridge, the county of Durham is now considered England's most affordable place to buy a house.
Oxbridge rejects rejoice, as the county of Durham has been named the most affordable county in England to buy a home, according to data published by My Home Move Conveyancing. The data looked at the average house price in each English country before dividing it by the average annual income. The results paint a predictable picture. If you live in the north of England, houses are cheaper. If you live in London, good luck.
The main number we are looking at here is called the affordability ratio. For example, for England as a whole, the average house price is £305,879, while the average annual salary is £35,955. The national affordability ratio is 8.5, meaning the average home costs 8.5 times the average salary. This is what we might describe as ‘not good’, considering that mortgage lenders traditionally offer a loan of about 4-5 times your average salary. If you had an average salary, and wanted to buy an average house, you would somehow need to find about half of the rest of the asking price. Perhaps behind the sofa? We’ll never know.
Durham’s affordability ratio currently stands at 4.3, making it (using this method) the most affordable county to purchase a home in the UK. The north of England makes up the rest of the top-10, with Tyne and Wear, Lancashire, Cumbria, South Yorkshire, other bits of Yorkshire and Northumberland all present. Shall we look at some nice pictures of those places? Places you could probably afford to live? Yes, let’s.
Buttermere. Not only does it look nice, it sounds nice. Credit: Getty
No buses or Deliveroo, sure, but also, you could buy a bicycle, learn to cook for yourself and bask in the splendour of our natural world. Credit: Getty
Yorkshire. Good for pudding, good for property. Who needs the ‘Underground’ when you have this ‘over the ground’. Credit: Getty.
I am being mean to London, which is unfair, considering A) I live there and B) it’s where all the jobs are basically and C) it’s not even the most expensive county on this list. That would be Oxfordshire, which has a ratio of 11.4. In second place is Devon, with 11.1, followed by London with 11. Various other bits of the south (your Sussexes, your Dorsets, your Isles of Wight, your Surreys) round out the top 10.
I think to many people, the results of this data/analysis are hardly a surprise. It is, however, still quite jarring to see just how heavily correlated the price of property is in the country to latitude. It’s not even distance to London. Have you ever tried to take the train from Devon to London? It takes forever. Newcastle is closer, when compared to time spent on a railway.
So there you have it. Yet another reason to move north, if you needed it. Happy Monday.
James Fisher is the deputy digital editor of countrylife.co.uk
Property Talk: What happens when you buy or sell a country estate?
In every end is a new beginning, finds Lucy Denton, as she examines the highs and lows of the sale
Property Talk: The improvements to your house that could pay off several times over when it’s time to sell
In a shaky housing market, doing what you can to make the most of your property's value can really pay
Property Talk: Why do we all love waterside homes?
Rivers, lakes, canals and the sea act as magnets for buyers. Annabel Dixon explores why ‘water always bucks the trend’.
Millennial misery continues, as they become first generation of homebuyers to see mortgage repayments increase
New data published in Hamptons' Generational Affordability Index is bad news for those born between 1981–95 who have made it
