UK areas where it’s easiest to save for a house deposit based on incomes, house prices and day-to-day living costs
If you are looking to get on the property ladder, these are the UK areas where it’s easiest to save for a house deposit.
For anyone trying to get on the property ladder, the question always comes up: how long is this actually going to take? A new study suggests the answer depends massively on where you live, and in some places, it’s a lot quicker than you might think.
Research from Mortgage Lane looked at incomes, house prices and day-to-day living costs across the UK to work out how long it takes the average person to save for a 25% deposit. The results paint a pretty clear picture: in some cities, homeownership is still within reach, while in others, it can feel miles away.
Right at the top sits Aberdeen, where saving for a deposit takes just 1.31 years on average. That’s largely down to a mix of relatively low house prices, around £128,000, and solid earnings. With people able to put away roughly £24,400 a year, buyers there can move a lot faster than in most parts of the country.
Kingston upon Hull isn’t far behind, with a saving time of 1.54 years. While wages are a bit lower, the cost of living is also much cheaper, which makes a big difference when it comes to setting money aside each month. Dundee follows in third place at 1.61 years, offering a similar balance between affordable homes and steady incomes.
Years to save for a house deposit
- Aberdeen 1.31
- Kingston upon Hull 1.54
- Dundee 1.61
- Sunderland 1.89
- Preston 2.00
- Doncaster 2.11
- Derby 2.15
- Liverpool 2.15
- Perth 2.30
- Coventry 2.32
- Bradford 2.33
- Wrexham 2.34
- Stirling 2.44
- Glasgow 2.49
- Wakefield 2.51
- Lancaster 2.51
- Swansea 2.56
- Lincoln 2.58
- Wolverhampton 2.74
- Newport 2.86
- Sheffield 2.87
- Peterborough 2.95
- Nottingham 3.01
- Birmingham 3.01
- Worcester 3.08
- Newcastle upon Tyne 3.11
- Southampton 3.15
- Armagh 3.22
- Plymouth 3.31
- Salford 3.40
- Leeds 3.45
- Hereford 3.48
- Manchester 3.49
- Newry 3.52
- Leicester 3.58
- Norwich 3.64
- Cardiff 3.87
- Gloucester 3.90
- York 3.98
- Edinburgh 4.01
- Colchester 4.18
- Belfast 4.22
- Milton Keynes 4.43
- Stoke on Trent 4.59
- Portsmouth 4.75
- Southend on Sea 5.17
- Chelmsford 5.37
- Bristol 5.84
- Exeter 6.32
- Canterbury 6.88
- Winchester 7.28
- Cambridge 7.39
- Chichester 8.98
- Brighton and Hove 10.08
- London 10.12
- Oxford 10.34
- Bath 11.55
- St Albans 13.53
- Westminster 28.61
Sunderland comes in fourth, where lower living costs help offset smaller salaries, keeping saving times under two years. In Preston, it takes exactly 2 years to build a deposit. House prices are a bit higher there, but earnings help keep things on track.
Elsewhere in the top 10, places like Doncaster, Derby and Liverpool all sit just above the two-year mark. In these cities, it’s often a case of slightly higher wages helping to balance out rising property prices. Perth and Coventry round things off, both still comfortably under two and a half years.
But once you move further down the list, the story quickly changes.
In some of the UK’s least affordable areas, saving for a deposit isn’t a short-term goal anymore, it’s a long haul. In St Albans, for example, it takes an average of 13.5 years to save enough. That’s driven by house prices around £625,000, which makes even a 25% deposit a huge target.
Bath and Oxford aren’t far behind, with saving times stretching past a decade. High property prices combined with expensive day-to-day living costs make it much harder to build up savings, even for those on decent salaries. London and Brighton and Hove tell a similar story, with buyers needing around 10 years on average just to get a foot in the door.
Then there’s Westminster, which sits in a league of its own. Here, saving for a deposit would take an eye-watering 28.6 years on average, underlining just how out of reach buying can be in the most expensive parts of the capital.