The most expensive cities to buy a house as a single person – full list

Buying an average home in 16 UK towns and cities requires a deposit of more than £200,000 for an average earner, new research reveals.

April Mortgages compared the against the average salary in 100 cities and towns to reveal how much deposit would be needed to fill the void, if using a at 4.5 times a salary.

In more than half (52 percent) of the locations analysed, the average earner would need to put down a deposit of more than £100,000.

The biggest disparity in the study was in St Albans, where its average £41,000 salary leaves a sizeable £406,000 deposit sized hole after getting a for the average house, which stands at £591,000.

Mark Eaton, COO at , notes that lending criteria put in place to protect borrowers is now having a “punitive effect” on them.

Eaton said: “Borrowers on lower or average salaries are facing an almighty battle to save a large enough deposit to climb onto the property ladder.”

“To address the current crisis, the industry needs to wake-up to new ways of thinking. Longer-term lending is one solution that can lead to improved affordability for borrowers who may otherwise be unable to achieve their home ownership dream.”

The study found that a single person can pay less than a 10% deposit in just 14 locations, such as Blackburn where buyers could put down around £7,000 on an average salary and house, highlighting the

Darlington is also more affordable with houses costing around 4.9 times the average salary, as well as Sunderland where average houses are 4.4 times the average salary.

The following table shows the most unaffordable towns and cities to buy an average home in the UK as a single applicant, according to the study.