It’s no secret that living in London will cost you a pretty penny. In fact, the city is notoriously known for being eye-wateringly expensive with exorbitant prices on almost anything and everything anywhere you turn (although we have found some of the best cheap things to eat and do in London). It is the literal price that we Londoners have to pay to call this city our home.
Aspiring homeowners are expected to fork out all that’s in their pockets and much more to be able to have a home in London that’s entirely theirs, to make that task just a little bit easier, Zoopla has rounded up the most affordable areas to buy a house in London. Hint: none of the areas are in zone 1.
Analysing house prices and local salaries of couples in over 1,000 towns in Britain, Zoopla wanted to find the most affordable areas to buy a home and found London’s top 10. The study went for affordability rather than the cheapest areas, making the distinction that “‘most affordable’ is determined by comparing house prices to earnings, while ‘cheapest’ simply means the lowest price”. It shows that areas with the cheapest houses may not necessarily be affordable if wages in that area are also low. Ratios are given for each area which indicates how many times your yearly income must be multiplied to afford the typical local home.
Coming in first as the most affordable area in London to buy a home is Croydon with average house prices at £415,245, an average annual income of a couple at £82,700, and a house price-to-earnings ratio of 5.02. In second place is Greenwich with a ratio of 5.14, and Tower Hamlets with a ratio of 5.26 to round out London’s top three most affordable areas.
The majority of the top 10 areas are in east and south London with Enfield, coming in at number eight, being the only northern borough and no areas in West London making it to the list. This isn’t much of a surprise especially considering 10 of the most expensive streets in the UK are all in London, west London specifically.
The top 10 most affordable places to buy a home in London:
- Croydon
- Greenwich
- Tower Hamlets
- Barking and Dagenham
- Bexley
- Havering
- Lewisham
- Enfield
- Bromley
- Newham
See the full study and find out which areas in Britain have the most affordable homes here.
