Commuters to London willing to make one-hour trip could see big savings on home

Updated

London workers could save nearly £450,000 on the cost of a home - if they are willing to commute from outside the city for an hour each way per day, according to research.

Towns that are an hour's commute from central London, such as Wellingborough, Southend, Sittingbourne and Rugby, have an average house price of £294,903, compared to the average price of £741,919 for a property close to work, Lloyds Bank found.

The difference would make an average saving of just over £447,000 - or around 60% - on property prices.

Even when taking into account the typical annual rail cost for a one-hour daily commute each way at £4,989, a commuter would have to make the same journey for 89 years for the total rail costs to wipe out the benefit in house prices, Lloyds said.

Wellingborough in Northamptonshire was identified as being the most affordable commuter town, where the average house price, at £183,345, is 4.1 times the average annual earnings for central London workers.

Peterborough in Cambridgeshire was the next most affordable town, with the average house price there costing 4.2 times the typical annual earnings in travel zones one and two in London, at £189,319.

Kettering in Northamptonshire, Chatham in Kent, Swindon in Wiltshire and Luton in Bedfordshire were also identified as particularly affordable areas for commuters into central London.

While many London workers find it cheaper to live outside the city, commuters working in Manchester and Birmingham often find property values are cheaper within these cities, compared with surrounding areas.

The average house price in Birmingham is £172,000, but several towns around a 40-minute rail journey away - including Derby, Coventry, Burton on Trent and Leamington Spa - command a higher average house price of £211,661.

The same applies to a number of towns that are around 40 minutes away from Manchester, such as Warrington, Chorley, and Macclesfield, which have a higher house price of £204,161 typically compared with the average property value of £162,214 in Manchester.

And some London commuters end up paying more to live outside the city. For example, the typical property value in Beaconsfield is £996,212, in Gerrards Cross it is £822,363 and in Harpenden it is £747,602.

Andrew Mason, Lloyds Bank mortgage products director, said: "Commuters to London who don't mind a longer journey between home and work could reap the financial benefits of living outside of the capital.

"However, the decision of whether to live in the city or further away is not simply a trade-off between financial costs and journey times. Quality of life is also a major factor: family circumstances, better schools, physical environment and homes that offer better value for money also come into the equation.

"That explains why, especially outside London, commuters are often prepared to pay a premium to commute when they could be better off in purely financial terms living closer to their place of work."



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