Southern first time buyers coasting along...
Post Office Money have released research looking at the affordability of homes in the 15 biggest UK cities. They considered average house prices and what percentage of homes had a median price less than 4.5 times average first time buyer income in that region.
What is interesting as someone practising on the South Coast is the disparity between Brighton, with 2% of homes being affordable under this metric, and Southampton. 98% of Southampton homes are considered to be affordable, or realistically within the reach of FTBs.
I am sure there are all sorts of reasons for this, and it might not be a sign of a healthy housing market if too many homes are 'affordable'.
One factor, perhaps, is that land in Brighton is very constrained as it sits squashed between the Channel and a major national park, with Southampton being better able to sprawl and having more ex-industrial and other brownfield land to bring forward into other uses.
In other markets, Sheffield remains affordable with 74% of homes within reach of local FTBs, and Manchester can offer 84% of its homes.
The affordability of each city was calculated by seeing what proportion of each geographical area had a median house price lower than 4.5 times the average income of first-time buyers in that region.
The most affordable area is Southampton, where the average property price is £199,074 and 98 per cent of properties are accessible to FTBs.
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