The industrial town of Port Talbot is the most affordable place in Britain for “key workers” such as teachers and nurses to buy their own homes, according to a major new house affordability survey.
And Wales as a whole is the second most affordable part of Britain for police officers and other frontline public workers to buy their own properties, according to the Halifax Key Worker Housing Review.
The review results have been welcomed by nursing leaders in Wales who say affordable housing could play a crucial role in recruiting and attracting trained nurses back to work in the nation’s hospitals.
The findings are based on the benchmark ratio of less than 4:1 of average house prices to regional average earnings of what it terms key workers – which also includes firefighters and paramedics.
The research shows that the average priced home in 38% of British towns – including Port Talbot (2.58:1), Ebbw Vale and Merthyr Tydfil – is affordable for the average key worker to purchase, a rise from just 4% in 2008.
But while the results might be good news for first time buyers in the public sector, it will be less so for existing homeowners looking for gains in the value of their property. The improvement in recent years has come largely as result of house price declines outside southern England.
The lowest house price to earnings ratio for key workers in Britain was in the North of England (3.64:1), followed by Wales (3.85:1), North West England (3.87:1) and Yorkshire and the Humber (3.93:1).
London (7.64:1) and South East England (6.72:1) have the highest ratios and are, therefore, the least affordable regions for key workers to buy a property. Source: waleson
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