With the cost of living continuing to put pressure on household budgets, choosing where to live has become just as important as how much you earn. House prices, rent, mortgage costs and everyday expenses all affect how far your income goes, but these costs vary significantly across Britain.
To uncover the most affordable places to live, the experts at Sell House Fast analysed every local authority across Great Britain using six key affordability measures, like annual earnings, house prices, rental costs and access to budget supermarkets – and Greater Manchester had a big look-in.
Wigan has some of the best access to budget supermarkets in the UK
Our very own Wigan was found to have some of the best access to budget supermarkets like Lidl, Aldi and Iceland, in turn bringing down the cost of living in this area of Greater Manchester. According to the research, Wigan has seven Aldis, 13 ASDAs, four Farmfoods, eight Herons, three Icelands and eight Lidls, with 12.64 budget supermarkets per 100,000 people.
Although these numbers place Wigan in 10th place, under a mostly northern class of areas, it does pinpoint an important element of choosing where to live, and ultimately contributes to the already booming housing market in Wigan.
The research also found:
- Wigan average monthly rent is £892.
- Wigan house price to income ratio is 6.04.
- Homeowners in Wigan have 68.77% left of their income after their mortgage repayments.
- Wigan’s renters have 71.87% left of their income after rent repayments.
90% of Britain’s most affordable areas are in northern England
Nine of the top 10 local authorities are located across the North East, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber. Scotland also performs strongly, with North Lanarkshire second overall and several authorities in the top 25.
Access to lower-cost supermarkets is stronger across many of the highest-ranked authorities. Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Doncaster and Hyndburn all record above-average numbers of budget supermarkets per head of population, helping households manage ongoing grocery costs alongside housing expenses
UK locations with the best access to budget supermarkets
With total number of budget supermarkets
- Hull – 45
- Denbighshire – 16
- West Dunbartonshire – 13
- Sunderland – 41
- Flintshire – 22
- Redcar and Cleveland – 19
- Hartlepool – 13
- Isle of Anglesey – 9
- South Tyneside – 19
- Wigan – 43
Read the full study here.
