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[Click here to see the full-sized map.]
Getting on the property ladder in the capital can feel like chasing a pipe dream. But it’s not impossible, according to TotallyMoney, which has mapped how much Londoners need to earn to afford a one-bedroom property near each tube stop across London. According to its number-crunching map, you can snap up a house in Redbridge or Newbury Park on an annual salary of £17,400 – which is £5,000 less than the average UK wage. If east London doesn’t take your fancy, you could nab a place in Oakwood on the Piccadilly line on £17,600 a year or in Croxley on the Metropolitan line on £25,500.
That’s the good news. Now here’s the bad: the calculations assume you’ve got a 10 percent deposit handy. (That’s somewhere in the region of £18,500 for your dream home in Croxley.) Unsurprisingly, the map also reveals that ‘affordable’ mortgages in London are a rare breed. Nurses, who earn £28,000 on average, can only afford a mortgage on two percent of the properties surveyed – and most of them are a long way from the city centre, where they’re needed as much as everywhere else.
The most expensive stations are Mansion House, Hyde Park Corner and Knightsbridge – all of which would be too pricey even for the Prime Minister (who earns just over £150,000) and the Mayor of London (who’s on £143,000). So yes, London’s housing market is still 50 shades of cray. But scan this new tube map, and you could find you’re closer to purchasing your own pad than you thought – as long as you can skip enough brunches to save up 18 grand.
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