Wales is the least affordable part of Great Britain for first-time buyers, new research shows. Ceredigion, Powys and Pembrokeshire topped the latest Skipton Group home affordability index, with less than 3% of potential first-time buyers able to afford a home in these areas.
Cardiff, Vale of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire also made the list of top ten least affordable areas. Skipton Group said it is “shocking” to see Wales feature so heavily, as these type of lists are usually dominated by London and the South East. City of London and Westminster featured further down, where only 3.2% and 3.9% of people in these areas can afford to buy a property.
South Holland and Blaby in the East Midlands complete the least affordable areas, where just 3.8% and 4% of people can afford to buy. On the other end of the scale, Scotland dominated the list of most affordable areas in Great Britain – with nine out of ten places located north of the border.
Aberdeen City was crowned the most affordable place, where 31% of people can afford to purchase a home. This was closely followed by Aberdeenshire and Na h-Eileanan Siar, where 28.2% and 25.1% of people can afford to buy. The only place outside of Scotland that featured on the most affordable list was Manchester City, where 23.1% can afford to purchase a home.
The report shows nearly 90% of potential first-time buyers cannot afford to get onto the property ladder without additional financial support. It comes as stamp duty thresholds are about to be reduced from April in England and Northern Ireland, with more than 75,000 buyers forecast to miss the deadline and pay thousands of pounds more in tax.
Skipton Group CEO, Stuart Haire, said: “People might expect London and the Southeast to dominate the least affordable areas for first-time buyers looking to get onto the property ladder in Great Britain, so it’s shocking to see Wales feature so heavily. The first step onto the property ladder remains by far the hardest but for Welsh first-time buyers, it must feel impossible. Our new data shows just how stark their affordability challenge is, yet it is further exacerbated by the absence of any land transaction tax relief for first-time buyers in Wales.”
WHATSAPP GROUP: Get money news and top deals straight to your phone by joining our Money WhatsApp group here. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
NEWSLETTER: Or sign up to the Mirror’s Money newsletter here for all the best advice and shopping deals straight to your inbox.
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.
