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

 

The worst areas were mainly in London, SE England or the East of England, with 2( Cotswold and South Hams) in the South West. Of the most affordable areas, most were in the North East, North West, Wales and Yorkshire and Humber areas. 

 

Turning to Workplace based earnings, of the 317 local authorities, 64 were in the least affordable areas. Of these, 62 were in London, SE England or the East of England with 2 – South Hams and Cotswold in SW England. The top 8 were all London Boroughs.

 

There were 62 areas, in the most affordable list.  These were located in the East Midlands, NE England, NW England, Yorkshire and Humberside and Wales. The most affordable was Blaneau Gwent at 3.75.

 

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.