Salary needed to buy an average home, by UK city
The table below shows the average house price in each area and the gross salary a single buyer would need to get a mortgage on it. The main column assumes a 10% deposit and the 4.5 times income multiple most UK lenders work to. The last two columns show how a more cautious 4x lender, or a larger 20% deposit, change the figure. All prices come from the gov.uk UK House Price Index for June 2026.
| City or area | Average price | Salary needed (4.5x, 10% deposit) | At 4x income | With 20% deposit |
|---|
| Kensington and Chelsea | £1,300,000 | £260,000 | £292,500 | £231,100 |
| Bath and North East Somerset | £404,480 | £80,900 | £91,000 | £71,900 |
| Barking and Dagenham (cheapest London borough) | £371,030 | £74,200 | £83,500 | £66,000 |
| City of Bristol | £356,824 | £71,400 | £80,300 | £63,400 |
| York | £309,611 | £61,900 | £69,700 | £55,000 |
| Manchester | £251,250 | £50,300 | £56,500 | £44,700 |
| Leeds | £249,394 | £49,900 | £56,100 | £44,300 |
| Birmingham | £234,150 | £46,800 | £52,700 | £41,600 |
| Leicester | £228,618 | £45,700 | £51,400 | £40,600 |
| Plymouth | £222,817 | £44,600 | £50,100 | £39,600 |
| Sheffield | £219,539 | £43,900 | £49,400 | £39,000 |
| Newcastle upon Tyne | £208,589 | £41,700 | £46,900 | £37,100 |
| Nottingham | £192,172 | £38,400 | £43,200 | £34,200 |
| Liverpool | £185,307 | £37,100 | £41,700 | £32,900 |
| Kingston upon Hull | £134,304 | £26,900 | £30,200 | £23,900 |
| Hartlepool (cheapest in England) | £130,000 | £26,000 | £29,300 | £23,100 |
Prices: gov.uk UK House Price Index, England, June 2026 (ONS and HM Land Registry). Salary: average price minus a 10% deposit, mortgage divided by 4.5x income, rounded to the nearest £100.
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How to cite this data
Salary Checker UK analysis of gov.uk UK House Price Index (June 2026), September 2026. https://salarychecker.uk/salary-to-buy-a-house.html
What the numbers show
The gap between the cheapest and dearest areas is enormous. A buyer in Hull needs a salary of about £26,000, roughly the UK's lower-middle income, to afford the average local home. A buyer wanting the average home in Kensington and Chelsea needs ten times that. And the average UK home, at around £272,000 in June 2026, needs a salary near £54,000, comfortably into the top fifth of individual earners.
That mismatch is the affordability problem in one line. The UK median individual income sits around £29,700, yet most cities in southern England and every London borough need a salary well above that to buy alone. It's why joint applications, larger deposits and family help have become the norm rather than the exception for first-time buyers.
The northern cities tell a different story. Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Hull and much of the North East and North West still sit within reach of a single average-to-good salary. A nurse, teacher or skilled tradesperson on £37,000 to £45,000 can realistically buy alone in these areas, which is close to impossible in Bath, Bristol or London.
How we worked it out
The method is deliberately simple and matches how mainstream lenders assess a mortgage. Take the average house price for the area. Assume a 10% deposit, so you borrow 90% of the price. Then divide that mortgage by 4.5, the income multiple most UK high-street lenders use as their starting point. That gives the gross salary you'd need.
Worked example for Manchester: the average home is £251,250. A 10% deposit is £25,125, so the mortgage is £226,125. Divide by 4.5 and you need a salary of about £50,300. With a 20% deposit the mortgage drops to £201,000 and the salary needed falls to about £44,700. A more cautious lender using 4x would want closer to £56,500.
Two caveats worth stating. First, the multiple is only a starting point; lenders also run an affordability check on your outgoings, so debts and childcare can lower what you're offered. Second, these are area averages, so a first flat costs less than the figure shown and a family house costs more. To see your take-home pay at any of these salaries, use the salary calculator, and to check the monthly mortgage cost use the affordability calculator.
Deposit matters as much as salary
The deposit column shows why saving harder can matter more than earning more. In every city, moving from a 10% to a 20% deposit cuts the salary needed by roughly 11%, because you're borrowing less against the same price. In Bristol that's the difference between needing £71,400 and £63,400. For buyers stuck just below an affordability threshold, finding a bigger deposit is often the faster route to a yes than waiting for a pay rise.
