The most and least affordable areas to buy a house

The average house price has now hit eight times earnings, so unless you find a mortgage company with an incredibly generous lending criteria, getting on the housing ladder - especially in the most popular areas - is laughably difficult. A new report has revealed the areas where buyers struggle the most.

The study, by eMoov, found that Londoners have the biggest mountain to climb, because although Londoners have the highest wages - they are massively outstripped by house prices. Overall, on average, house prices are 14 times earnings in the capital.

Kensington and Chelsea tops the list with an average property price of £1.2 million. The price of property in the borough is now 46 times the average wage (£26,500) and the nation's biggest wage to property ratio by a long shot.

The City of Westminster is number two on the list, where the average property is valued at £1 million. With the average wage just £33,000, house prices are therefore 31 times higher than the earnings on offer.

The most unaffordable region outside of London and third place overall is St Albans in Hertfordshire, where the average wage is £19,000, while the average property price is £523,000. The house price to wage ratio is 28, meaning a lifetime of saving to afford a property in the area.

The second most expensive region outside the capital, and 6th overall, is South Bucks, in Buckinghamshire, where the house price to wage ratio is 25 times - the average house price now costs £588,000, while the average wage is just £23,000.

Top 10 least affordable
Kensington and Chelsea, with a house price to wage ratio of 46
City of Westminster with a ratio of 31
St Albans at 28
Richmond upon Thames 26
Hammersmith and Fulham 26
South Bucks 25
Camden 25
Chiltern 24
Wandsworth 23
Harrow 23

At the other endow the spectrum, Copeland in western Cumbria is the most affordable area in the UK, where property costs just three times the average wage. It is closely followed by Wales' Blaenau Gwent and Burnley in Lancashire, with property prices just four times the average wage.

Top ten most affordable
Copeland, with a house price to wage ratio of 3
Blaenau Gwent, with a ratio of 4
Burnley 4
North Lanarkshire 5
County Durham 5
East Ayrshire 5
Pendle 5
Merthyr Tydfil 5
Neath Port Talbot 5
Stoke-on-Trent 5

What can you do?

It's almost enough to make you want to pack up and move to Copeland, but there are two reasons why we shouldn't be too freaked out by this study. The first is that using averages can be misleading, because nobody thinks 'I want to live in an average house', they find an area where they can afford a property they are happy in.

Take Westminster, for example, an average person on the average income of £33,000 isn't likely to expect to buy an average property - as this would be ludicrously expensive. Instead, they may be perfectly happy saving to buy a £250,000 studio flat with their partner. Assuming a joint income of £50,000, that's a much more bearable house price to wage ratio of 5.

The second is that house prices are just one piece of the puzzle. Russell Quirk, founder and CEO of eMoov.co.uk, comments: "A lower property price doesn't always mean a better quality of living as the wage will also reflect the local market and economy."

It means that rather than heading for the affordable hills, the most sensible approach is to get acquainted with how unaffordable property is in the area you want to live, and consider whether you'd rather move slightly further afield in return for more affordable property (or more space), or whether you are happy to compromise on the property and the amount of disposable cash you have after paying the mortgage.

But what do you think? Which kind of compromise works for you? Let us know in the comments.