Derry is UK's '˜most affordable city'

It's official - Derry is the most affordable city in the UK to buy a house.
Derry's Peace Bridge.Derry's Peace Bridge.
Derry's Peace Bridge.

According to Lloyds Bank’s affordability ratio - which compares average city house prices with average gross local earnings - the average property in Derry now costs just 3.81 times earnings.

Meanwhile, the figures for Belfast and Lisburn are 4.42 and 4.64 respectively.

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At the opposite end of the scale, a home in Oxford, Winchester or London costs more than 10 times the average local wage.

Outside the south of England, York is among the least affordable cities, with a property there costing 7.5 times earnings.

Lloyds Bank’s affordability ratio found that the average city property in the UK now costs 6.6 times earnings, up from a multiple of 6.2 a year ago.

The report also found the average UK city house price has risen by 8 per cent from £196,229 in 2015 to a record level of £211,880 in 2016, though there are massive regional differences within this figure.

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Lloyds used official earnings figures and house prices from Halifax’s database to make its findings.

It said the affordability of a home in UK cities is on average now at its worst level since the average house price-to-earnings ratio increased to 7.2 at the height of the last housing market boom in 2008.

Andrew Mason, Lloyds Bank mortgage products director, said: “House price rises in the past three years have risen more steeply than average wage growth, making it more expensive to buy a home in the majority of UK cities.

“This has also widened the north-south divide, as house prices in the south have generally seen stronger growth than in the north.”

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The 10 most affordable UK cities, according to Lloyds Bank, with the house price-to-earnings ratio, are as follows: 1. Derry (3.81); 2. Stirling (4.11); 3. Bradford (4.31); 4. Belfast (4.42); 5. Hereford (4.55); 6. Lisburn (4.64); 7. Durham (4.73); 8. Lancaster (4.89); 9. Carlisle (5.03); 10 Glasgow (5.07).

The 10 least affordable UK cities, according to Lloyds Bank, are: 1. Oxford (10.68); 2. Winchester (10.54); 3. Greater London (10.06); 4. Cambridge (9.90); 5. Bath (9.77); 6. Brighton and Hove (9.60); 7. Truro (9.11); 8. St Albans (8.66); 9. Chichester (8.58); 10. Exeter (8.36).