Affordability improves for UK’s housebuyers

Inverclyde in Scotland has been named the most affordable place in the UK to buy a house. Data from Halifax has revealed the relationship between average wages and house prices in locations across the country. On average, house prices have fallen to £286,276 while wages have risen by about 7% to £43,090, allowing the house price to income ratio to fall to 6.7. This is down from a peak of 7.3 in June 2022, the least affordable level ever recorded. Halifax found that while falling house prices and rising wages had closed the gap in Inverclyde, with a ratio of 2.9, the opposite was true in Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea, where the average house price was 16 times average salary. All of the top 10 least affordable places were in the South East and London orbital area. Scotland dominated the top 10 most affordable list, taking seven spots, with the most affordable place in England being Hull. The Times (£)The Telegraph (£)The Guardian