Research from the national estate agent, Keller Williams UK, has revealed where the most and least affordable locations are for first-time buyers in the UK.
London was unsurprisingly the most expensive with the average house costing £430K. The research found that Scotland and the North East had the lowest average house prices at approx £130K.
Would you consider relocating to a new area because of the average house price?
We certainly considered this. It’s the friendship ties that prevented me from doing so.
The compromise we made was if we moved away, we would use some of the savings to purchase a return flight each month a year in advance to make sure we came back to the big smoke to see friends.
Yeah super tricky if London is where you’ve built your whole life 
Where would your second choice be after London?
Either Scotland or the south coast.
I have family around Bournemouth and I’ve always thought that would be a nice area to live in!
Second most expensive area after London though haha
I’m sorry but how can you group ‘Scotland’ and ‘Wales’ as entire regions in a comparative “U.K.” wide study? Why don’t we get split into north, south, east and west?
I live in Glasgow, where average house prices can vary by 200k depending on where you live. The same, if not worse, is true of Edinburgh. If you go to the sticks you’ll get different swings again.
5.5m people live in Scotland. To claim that ‘average house price’ for that amount of people across such a massive area is approx £130k is a misleading, lazy, disingenuous statement.
You could say the same for every other region, house prices vary significantly within every region eg central Manchester very different to elsewhere in the north west
Yorkshire - 5.4 million people
North west - 7.3 million
Etc etc
This isn’t true at all, and certainly doesn’t warrant such an aggressive response. I’m sure it was just intended as a lighthearted topic for some discussion, rather than a personal attack on the price of your house in Glasgow.
You’re right, reading it back maybe my response was a little OTT, apologies.
It’s just incredibly frustrating to see your country marginalised in pretty much every regional poll. Occasionally you need to take exception but appreciate this maybe isn’t the forum for that.
I’m not sure why the researchers didn’t feel the need to split Scotland and Wales further, but I guess we just need to remember that research like this always needs to be taken with a pinch of salt 
Yes house prices will vary massively depending on the city, town, and even street, but this research was looking at average house prices. It’s not saying everyone in Scotland can buy a house for £130K - so it doesn’t really matter how many people are in an area, an average is an average?
Anyway, I was just more interested in knowing whether house prices would influence where you decided to live!
Interesting research here. Property prices can now also be impacted by which restaurants and delivery services are in your local area.
Ooo this is really interesting - thanks for sharing!
I wonder if there any any restaurants that actually decrease the value of your home haha?
I agree that so many comparisons are England focused. It’d be cool to also see a breakdown of Scotland, Wales and NI - I want to take a trip on Google Maps to see what these places are like
According to new statistics from MoveIQ and Propertydata, here are the most affordable places, on average, to purchase a property by postcode within the UK in 2021:
What are your thoughts?
Source: Cheapest Places to Buy a House | UK Top 20 | Move iQ
It’s a good list to show people it doesn’t have to be expensive to buy, but the biggest issue is most people don’t seem to be happy to move just for the savings.
I tried myself and moving away from my friends wasn’t worth saving £400,000 on a property price personally.
I’m sure there are many people that are willing to do this however.
That’s a very valid point you make, it is a big ask to make such a move away from friends and family to save money.
What are your thoughts on these places potentially being investment properties? I think I’d look elsewhere to invest for sure!
100%. Having read the article and checked the areas, I contacted a broker last night and have already spoken with them around buying to let for up to 3 properties.
I only did rough calculations but in 10 years could have 3 properties almost entirely paid off. Certainly 2 properties but I haven’t accounted for property value increase, an increase in interest rates, or a salary increase.
It means I remain in London with my friends and family and just build a small property portfolio.
That’s amazing to hear @jase!
I think that’s a brilliant potential returns and makes a ton of sense if it affords you the ability to stay in London with friends and family.
What area’s in particular were of interest to you? I’ve always found Liverpool rather interesting.
I chose Liverpool given the location close to universities and many stations, as well as commuting to Manchester, Preston, Chester, and over to Isle of Mann etc…
Also has a fair amount of tourist visitors each year.
That sounds like a great choice, would be great to hear how the process goes for you as you continue along it!
