Choosing words to describe London right now, what comes to mind? Chilly? Dysfunctional? Safe to say that ‘affordable’ probably isn’t one of those words, what with rents and house prices still sky-high and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
Alas, apparently London is currently affordable – or at least the capital is more affordable than it has been. That’s according to property marketplace Zoopla, anyway, which reckons that London is more affordable right now than at any other point since 2014.
So why does Zoopla reckon that our city is more affordable now than in recent years? Well, the platform points to several factors.
Chief among Zoopla’s reasons is a stat that says London house price growth is lagging behind the rest of the UK. While the rest of the country has seen a 34 percent increase in property prices since 2016, London has apparently only experienced a 13 percent rise.
That being said, London’s house prices are still extortionate. Sure, they’ve ‘only’ risen 13 percent, but property in the capital is still exceptionally expensive. Rightmove puts the current average ratio of house prices to earnings as 13:1.
London’s least affordable year in the past decade was apparently 2016, which is when Zoopla says the earnings-to-property-prices ratio was a whopping 15:1. You can find out more about Zoopla’s numbers here.
Do you agree with Zoopla? Whether you do or not, fortunately there are still plenty of affordable ways to properly experience London – and Time Out has the lowdown on loads of ‘em. Check out this guide to free things to do in the capital, 50 things to do for less than the cost of a pint and our definitive list of London’s best cheap eats.
Did you see that TfL is scrapping peak fares on Fridays for London’s tubes and trains?
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