The property hotspots where house prices are more affordable due to rising wages – but you’ll need to live in the North

MORE than half of people in Britain have seen their wages rise faster than house prices over the past 10 years - but that’s only if you live in the North.

The gap between the north and south is getting bigger as it becomes less affordable to live in the South.

While Londoners struggle with the cost of living, it’s cheaper to live in Edinburgh, Birmingham, Peterborough, Leeds and Harrogate than it was ten years ago.

This is down to wages rising quicker than house prices, unlike in the south where house prices have outstripped wages.

But it’s not all good news for the North. If you live in Manchester, you will be feeling the pinch as wage rises don’t keep up with the increasing house prices.

The research by the Yorkshire Building Society found that 54 per cent of the country is more affordable to live in than before the credit crunch in 2007.

But in the South East and East of England, people are still struggling to own property, where it’s become 15 per cent less affordable.

Unsurprisingly, London boroughs make up six out of the 10 most unaffordable places to live in.

Outside the capital, Three Rivers in Hertfordshire and Haringey has become the most expensive place to live compared to the average wages.

Here, the average home now costs 15.83 times the average salary.

The least affordable place to live is now Westminster where the average house price is £1,034,073, just over 24 times the average wage.

Inverclyde, near Glasgow in Scotland, saw the biggest increase in affordability where the average home costs just over three and a half times the average salary.

Andrew McPhillips from the Yorkshire Building Society pointed out that it’s bad news for first time buyers who are trying to get on the property ladder in the south.

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He said: “It has become increasingly difficult for first-time buyers and those wanting to move up the housing ladder to be able to buy their first or next home.

“However, the north of England, Wales and Scotland present a different picture entirely, with many places, such as Edinburgh, Peterborough and Birmingham, becoming more affordable than they were before the credit crunch.”

The Yorkshire Building Society looked at how much people earned compared to house prices over the past 10 years.

They found that it's better on the purse strings to live in Scotland and Wales than it is to live in England.

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