Data on average house prices can be disheartening for homebuyers planning their next move, but reallymoving’s interactive Home Affordability Map allows them to search by budget and number of bedrooms to pinpoint the exact locations where they can access the greatest choice of properties.
There are pockets of affordability even in the most expensive regions, including London and the South East, and the map is designed to help homebuyers focus their search on the most fruitful locations within their search area – or encourage them to widen it in order to find the best property within their price range. Rather than ruling out entire areas, buyers can use the map to home in on specific postcodes they may not previously have considered where their money goes further.
Homebuyers can enter their budget and desired number of bedrooms to reveal a colour-coded heatmap of the country, highlighting in green the most promising areas to search where 90% or more of the homes are affordable. Neighbourhoods with lower levels of affordability are shown in shades from orange to red, with locations where fewer than 10% of homes are affordable marked in red.
In leading affordability hotspots such as Ferndale in the Rhondda Valley, where 99% of 2-bed homes are within the average buyer’s £180,000 budget, as well as Bradford (97%) and Accrington (97%), buyers are able to choose from almost the entire local market of 2-bed properties, significantly improving their chances of success.
Even within more expensive regions such as London and the South East, there are hotspots where most of the market is within reach, including Purfleet in Essex, where 95% of 2-bed homes are affordable to buyers with London’s average budget of £400,000, and Eastbourne on the south coast where 73% of 2-bed properties fall within the average Brighton buyer’s budget of £299,000. The data suggests that buyers who widen their search area beyond the most sought-after postcodes can unlock significantly greater choice without moving far from major employment centres and transport connections.
reallymoving cofounder and CEO, Rob Houghton, said:
“House prices may be flat or even falling in some areas at the moment, but with high mortgage rates and ongoing financial pressures on households, buying a home or moving up the ladder still feels incredibly challenging. The key message for buyers is that affordability varies dramatically within just a few miles and there are areas within twenty miles of many major cities where they can get considerably more choice than they might expect.
“Even within 20 miles of central London, there are locations such as Purfleet, Southall, Watford and parts of Croydon where buyers with an average London budget of £400,000 can access a significant proportion of 2-bedroom homes within a short commute of the capital. By approaching their search strategically, buyers can identify specific postcodes they may not have considered before, where they have a much better chance of securing the type of property they want within budget.”
