First-time buyers are facing an increasingly difficult challenge when attempting to get onto the property ladder.
With UK house prices skyrocketing, affordability is becoming a bigger concern for new homeowners who are trying to save for a deposit and secure a mortgage.
It is therefore beneficial to know which areas offer the best value for money when it comes to choosing where to live.
House prices differ hugely across the country - and throughout each region - with certain areas becoming hotspots for first-time buyers.
READ MORE:
Nationwide's affordability report has now revealed the most and least affordable areas for those looking to buy a home in Britain.
Taking into account both the average house price for first-time buyers and average earnings in 2021, the building society has ranked each region from the cheapest to most expensive place to live.
Most affordable areas for first-time buyers
The most affordable area in Britain is East Ayrshire in Scotland, with the lowest average house price of £83,255.
A North West borough comes in second on the list - Copeland in Cumbria - despite average prices rising 11% over the last year.
In the North East, County Durham has the third lowest average house price at £102,267.
Merthyr Tydfil remains the most affordable borough in Wales, and while average house prices have risen over the past year, they are still amongst the lowest in the country.
Barnsley has replaced North East Lincolnshire as the most affordable area in the Yorkshire and The Humber region, with the average house price at £ 125,102.
In the West Midlands, Stoke-on-Trent continues to have the lowest house price meanwhile in the East Midlands, the district of Bolsover remains the most affordable area.
The cheapest area to live in East of England is Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, where the average house price is around £160,516.
Swindon remains the most affordable area to live in the South West, and in the South East, Southampton has replaced Dover as the lowest priced place.
Last on the list is Bromley - the most affordable borough in London - where house prices are £370,312 on average.
Least affordable areas for first-time buyers
Britain's least affordable area to live is in London - with the borough of Kensington and Chelsea listed as the most expense place to buy a home.
Here, the average house price for a first-time buyer would be a whopping £1,062,653.
The second priciest area to live is Oxford, with house prices 10.1 times average earnings in the region.
Hertsmere and the Cotswolds took third and fourth place, with a house prices on average between £402,791 and £323,891.
Rutland, the smallest historic county in England, is fifth on the chart and remains the least affordable authority in the East Midlands, while in the West Midlands it is Malvern Hills.
In Yorkshire and The Humber, Ryedale is the least most affordable place to live despite seeing weaker price growth over the last year than most of the region.
In the North West region South Lakeland in Cumbria is classed as the most expensive area, which includes parts of the popular Lake District national park including Ambleside and Windermere.
In South Lakeland the average house price for a first-time buyer would be around £223,675.
The Vale of Glamorgan has replaced Cardiff as the least affordable area in Wales, where house prices rose by 17% year-on-year.
In Scotland, Edinburgh continues to be the most expensive area with average house prices in the capital significantly higher than other parts of country - at around £240,504.
Last on the list of the least affordable areas is North Tyneside in the North East, however it is still relatively affordable compared to some of the other locations on the list with an average house price of £152,542.
Commenting on the figures, senior economist Andrew Harvey: “Our recent affordability report identified that affordability was becoming more stretched across all regions.
“As illustrated by the chart, London has by far the greatest gap between the least and most affordable boroughs, while the North East has the smallest.
"This helps to illustrate the challenge that many first time buyers across the country face, in terms of raising a deposit to purchase their first home.
"Further, the cost of servicing a mortgage as a share of take-home pay is now above its long-run average in the majority of UK regions."
