Getting onto the property ladder has become harder for first time buyers in recent years. However, some areas of the country are kinder to first time buyers than some other areas. Here are the best places to start your property search:
Oxford
Oxford is a popular house-hunting location, partly thanks to its quick and easy commute into the capital. This university city came top of a recent study, beating 34 other locations for having one of the best chances of getting on the property ladder. The study took several factors into account, including job availability, salary average, levels of disposable income and content theft figures. This is due to excellent job opportunities and an average salary that’s higher than some other areas.
Bath
This attractive spa city offers an average starter property price of £273,000. It ranks second place in the study down to its excellent job market (the highest in all those cities examined). There are more than 13 job openings per 100 people which makes Bath an enticing choice for house hunting. For Bath Estate Agents, visit https://www.pritchards-bath.co.uk/
Wolverhampton
In third place comes this Midlands city with one-bedroom flats coming in at well below the national average – an average £98,000 instead of £135,000. The average salary earned here is approximately £30,000, with an average family disposable income of just over £14,000.
York and Aberdeen
These two cities make up the remainder of the top 5 best locations for first time buyers. They both offer around the average or just below the national average price for a one bedroom flat and residents enjoy relatively high levels of disposable income.
The last place location was London, unsurprisingly. Whilst it offers a huge variety of excellent job opportunities and the chance to make high earnings, the hugely expensive and inflated property prices put it out of the reach of most first-time buyers. Other locations that joined London at the bottom included Hull, Sheffield and Leicester. Property prices here are lower than London but there are poorer than average job prospects, lower salaries and as a result, a lower average disposable income.
Thankfully, for those wishing to climb onto the first rung of the property ladder, the first-time buyer market is showing some signs of hope again. Prices have fallen in some regions, in part due to the decline in the number of buy-to-lets. With a degree of flexibility and keeping an open mind on location, first-time buyers stand a much better chance of finding a property that they can afford to buy.