Best-value city to buy house in UK revealed ... it’s Stirling
Edinburgh stays least affordable for people on average earnings
STIRLING tops the rankings as the best place in the UK to buy a house when coupled with average earnings – with Edinburgh retaining the title as the least affordable.
At £173,848, the average property price in Stirling is 3.7 times average gross annual earnings, against a UK cities average of 6.9.
The annual Bank of Scotland report shows buying a house has become less affordable in cities north of the Border and is at its worst level since 2009.
The average house price in cities has risen almost three per cent from £181,061 in 2016 to £186,002 in 2017, compared to one per cent across the whole of Scotland.
Over the same period, average annual earnings in cities have seen only a seven per cent increase, rising to £32,796.
As a result, the average home in a city now costs about 6.9 times the average annual wage – the least affordable house price-to-earnings ratio since 2008, when a city home typically cost 7.2 times annual wages.
Edinburgh is once again Scotland’s least affordable city, with an average house price of £236,136, six times annual gross average earnings.
Aberdeen, Perth, Dundee and Inverness make up the top five least affordable cities north of the border, but the latter three plus Glasgow are included in the UK’s top 20 most affordable spots.
Perth has recorded the biggest price rise of any Scottish city over the past decade, with a gain of 31 per cent compared to the UK cities average of 21 per cent.
Graham Blair, mortgage director at Bank of Scotland, said: “Homebuyers in Scotland’s cities have seen affordability levels worsen for the fourth consecutive Perth close behind. Stirling now takes the top spot as the UK’s most affordable city as well as Scotland’s.”
The study, which looked at 61 cities across the UK, identified Oxford as the UK’s least affordable city, with homes there costing nearly 11 times average local earnings.
Londonderry, Belfast and Lisburn in Northern Ireland are among the most affordable cities, as are Bradford and Sunderland in northern England and Swansea in Wales.
St Albans, Hertfordshire, recorded the biggest price rise of any UK city over the past decade, with a 65 per cent gain over the last 10 years. The average house price in St Albans is now £515,899.
London has seen the fastest house price growth over the last five years, with a 57 per cent uplift taking average prices to £467,001.
Lloyds said the average house price-to-earnings ratio in London disguises considerable variations across the borough, with central London boroughs being significantly less affordable than Greater London as a whole.
Andy Mason, Lloyds Bank mortgage products director, said: “Affordability levels have worsened for four consecutive years as average city house prices continue to rise more steeply than average wage growth.”