Housing affordability – the worst and best areas for affordability

The Office for National Statistics released the annual affordability data on March 24th.  This shows median house prices, Median gross, full-time, annual workplace-based earnings and the ratio between the two. Another set of data uses median gross annual resident based earnings.  Comparable data for all the data sets is available from 2003 onwards.

 

Looking at resident based earnings, of the 317 local authorities 98 (10.1 or more), of the worst areas are either in London, SE England or the East of England. Of the most affordable areas (6.9 or less), 96 are in the East Midlands, West Midlands, North East, North West, Wales and Yorkshire and Humber. The least affordable area in the South West is East Devon and the most affordable is Plymouth. 

 

Turning to Workplace based earnings, of the 317 local authorities, 117 were in the least affordable areas (10.1 or more). The South Hams now appears in this group at 12.3.   There were  91 areas (6.9 or less), jn the most affordable list.

 

Notes

“Affordability ratios calculated by dividing house prices by gross annual earnings, based on the median and lower quartiles of both house prices and earnings. The earnings data are from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, which provides a snapshot of earnings at April in each year. Earnings relate to gross full-time individual earnings on a place of work basis. The house price statistics come from the House Price Statistics for Small Areas, which report the median and lower quartile price paid for residential property and refer to a 12-month period with April in the middle (year ending September). Statistics are available at country, region, county and local authority district level in England and Wales.

 

House Price Statistics for Small Areas and Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings from the Office for National Statistics."

 

Sources

Office for National Statistics, (24 March 2025), Housing affordability in England and Wales: 2024.