The most expensive places to live in Britain

New research has revealed that collectively we spend £133 billion a year on housing - made up of a combination of mortgage payments and rent. This works out at an average of £5,593 per household each year. Of course, in some areas, the costs are far more punishing. We can reveal the most expensive areas in the country - including two where the typical family spends more than £20,000 a year putting a roof over their heads.
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Most expensive

Unsurprisingly London is home to the most excruciating property costs. The ridiculous expense of property in the capital has vastly inflated the amount people are spending on mortgages, and reduced the number who have been able to pay off their mortgage. It has also forced a far higher proportion of people into the private rental sector than anywhere else in the country, which has pushed rental prices up too. As a result, the average household spends £11,329 a year on property.

This is almost double the amount spent by its nearest rival - the wider South East which comes in at £6,696. The rest of the top five for housing costs include the East of England (£5,558), the South West (£4,881) and the West Midlands (£4,026).

Cheapest

At the other end of the spectrum, households in the North East have the lowest housing costs (at just £3,450 a year). This owes much to the number of people paying social rents (24% compared to a national average of 14%).

The rest of the bottom five were made up of Wales (£3,537), the North West (£3,841), Yorkshire and the Humber (£3,847) and the East Midlands (£3,888).

The figures were put together by Savills, which has produced an interactive map showing the housing costs in each area. On a more local level the company also broke down the 30 most expensive places to live in the UK - and only six of them are outside London: Elmbridge, South Buckinghamshire, Windsor and Maidenhead, Epsom and Ewell, St Albans and Guildford.

Within London, the top five most expensive places to live were Kensington and Chelsea (£22,358 a year), Westminster (£20,813), the City of London (£16,807), Hammersmith and Fulham (£16,175) and Wandsworth (£15,718). The cheapest spot in the capital for housing costs was revealed as Enfield, where property still costs £9,253 a year.

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