UK Mortgage Affordability Map

How many years of an average local salary does it take to buy an average local house? Click a region to see the maths: median price, median salary, monthly payment at today's rates, and how long it would take to save the deposit.

Years of median salary to buy a median home

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SCT5.2x NIR5.0x NE4.8x NW6.0x YH5.9x WLS6.0x WM6.8x EM6.9x EE8.5x SW8.3x SE8.9x LDN10.9x

Tap a region to see the affordability breakdown.

All regions ranked

RegionPriceSalaryP/EMonthly% net
North East£169k£35k4.8x £88741%
Northern Ireland£178k£35k5.0x £93742%
Scotland£198k£38k5.2x £1,04244%
Yorkshire & Humber£212k£36k5.9x £1,11350%
Wales£209k£35k6.0x £1,10050%
North West£219k£36k6.0x £1,15051%
West Midlands£246k£36k6.8x £1,29457%
East Midlands£245k£36k6.9x £1,28658%
South West£310k£37k8.3x £1,62870%
East of England£340k£40k8.5x £1,78671%
South East£375k£42k8.9x £1,97075%
London£520k£48k10.9x £2,73391%

How this is calculated

House prices are the latest annual averages from the ONS UK House Price Index. Salaries are median full-time gross annual pay from the latest ONS ASHE release. Monthly payments use the standard repayment-mortgage annuity formula (M = L × r(1+r)^n / ((1+r)^n - 1)). "% of net pay" assumes a 25% income tax and National Insurance deduction (gross × 0.75 ÷ 12) - fine for the headline but plug exact numbers into the take-home pay calculator if you want the truth for your circumstances.

Regional data refreshed 2026-05-17. Mortgage rate refreshes daily from the BoE.

Frequently asked questions

What does "price to earnings" mean for a house?
It's the ratio of the median local house price to the median local full-time salary. A ratio of 10x means a typical home costs ten times what a typical worker earns in a year. Mortgage lenders typically cap loans at 4.5x salary, so anything above that needs a deposit, two earners, or both.
Why are these salary figures so much higher than what I earn?
They are medians for full-time employees by place of work. Part-time workers, the self-employed and people not in employment are excluded. If you compare against household-disposable-income figures the picture changes materially. The page deliberately uses ASHE because it is the standard ONS series journalists and economists quote.
Why does London show a P/E above 10 when the news says "8 times" or similar?
Different sources use different denominators. Some use household income, some use mean rather than median salary, some use a younger first-time-buyer salary cohort. We use median full-time gross salary at place of work because it's the most stable, official, and apples-to-apples across regions.
Where does the mortgage rate come from?
We default to the Bank of England's published average quoted rate on a new 2-year fixed mortgage at 75% LTV (their series IUMBV34), refreshed daily by the same Lambda that powers our macro dashboard. You can override the rate in the controls above.
How often is the underlying regional data updated?
House prices and salaries are refreshed annually after ONS publishes the new House Price Index annual averages and the new ASHE release (both come out around October each year for the previous tax year). The current dataset is dated next to the methodology section above.