The latest figures show the average asking price for a home in the UK hit a record high of £314,000 in April, a £3,500 rise on the previous month.
For this price you could get an entire small island off Orkney in the very north of Scotland with its own period farm cottage, 40 acres of land and a wind turbine for free electricity, or you could buy a 95sq ft studio in central London.
The national average figure masks the large difference in asking prices between different regions of the country, and is also skewed by vastly higher London prices. The aforementioned studio flat is close to Sloane Square in Pimlico in the City of Westminster, the most expensive borough in the country with average asking prices of £2.1 million.
What you need to buy a £314,000 home
- A 20 per cent deposit on the average British property would be £62,700.
- You’d need a household income of £55,760 to meet the affordability calculation of 4.5 times loan to salary ratio to get a mortgage on the remainder.
The cheapest region is the North East, where the average house costs £150,350, according to the Rightmove figures.
For twice that sum you can pick up an attractive red-brick Victorian three-bedroom terraced house, full of period features, in a desirable part of Newcastle.
In Yorkshire and Humber too, there are deals to be found if you have the national average house price at your disposal — in Hull, you could buy a Grade II-listed, semi-detached, four-bedroom house and have change to spare.
At £418,000, the average asking price in the South East is a quarter higher than the national average but a period seaside bolthole in Kent can be found within budget.
Meanwhile, although average asking prices in London are £637,000, more than four times higher than in the North East and more than double the national average, it is possible to find averagely priced properties in the capital, especially in outer London.
Rightmove currently lists 973 properties in London priced between £300,000 and £325,000.
See the gallery to discover what else you could buy for the average house price throughout the UK.