UK house prices: From London to Leeds, here are the UK’s cities, ranked from least to most affordable property
House prices in the capital may be shooting up, but considering Londoners tend to earn a lot more than those living in, for instance, Glasgow, what does that actually mean?
A new report ranks world cities by how much house prices are in comparison to locals' average salaries. And while London (unsurprisingly) is named one of the world's most unaffordable cities, it puts Hong Kong top, with the house prices hitting 19 times the average salary.
The report, by US organisation Demographia International, also ranks cities in the UK (although it takes a slightly liberal stance on the meaning of the term "city") . Not surprisingly, London is the least affordable, with homes costing an average of 8.5 times people's earnings.
What's eyebrow-raising is not one of the UK cities listed rank as "affordable" (ie. three times salary and under). Most are either moderately unaffordable (four times and under) or seriously unaffordable (five times and under). Even areas thought of as pretty cheap by Londoners – Stoke-on-Trent, Liverpool, etc – are seen as severely unaffordable (five times and over).
Here's the bad news. We suggest you sit down first…
