The 10 cheapest UK areas for first-time buyers with house prices from £84,000
03-12-2025
Getting a foot on the property ladder is much more affordable in these ten parts of the UK
Phoebe Jobling Property Writer
Here are the most affordable areas for first-time buyers(Image: Getty Images)
First-time buyers are being told of the cheapest areas to buy a house in the UK with house prices starting from £84,000. It is becoming increasingly difficult for young people to get on the property ladder, with the average price of home coming to market now £367,994, according to Rightmove.
Despite mortgage rates slowly coming down in the last year, the end of the Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) relief in England and Northern Ireland is now just weeks away.
The stamp duty thresholds are set to revert back to previous levels at the end of March, which means that more than 25,000 first-time buyers in England could be on track to miss the crucial deadline.
From April 1, first-time buyers purchasing homes priced at £425,000 will go from paying no SDLT to having to pay £6,250. This rises to £11,250 for homes priced between £500,001 and £625,000.
Wage growth has also outpaced the rise in average asking prices for first-time buyer homes in the last five years, Rightmove says. Whilst this has slightly increased the borrowing power of first-time buyers, affordability remains very stretched.
The average monthly first-time buyer mortgage payment for a home with two bedrooms or fewer, based on a 30-year mortgage term is still £350, which is 59 percent higher than five years ago.
Grimsby has an average house price of £93,427
A typical first-time buyer is currently paying a mortgage of £940 per month, compared with £590 per month in 2020. Yet this is still £155 lower than the peak in July 2023.
The average five-year mortgage rate is now 4.69 percent, compared to 2.22 percent at this time in March 2020 and 6.11 percent in July 2023.
Rightmove's mortgage expert Matt Smith says: “Higher mortgage rates mean home-movers need to consider how much they can afford to pay each month on a monthly mortgage, even if they can meet the asking price of a home. Another measure of affordability which is restricting some first-time buyers from getting onto the ladder is how much they can borrow.
“It’s encouraging to see that the regulator is considering how they may be able to enable first-time buyers to borrow more in a responsible way, as we think this will help to unlock more opportunity, particularly for those with smaller deposits."
For those who may be looking at lower-priced areas to move to, Kilmarnock in Ayrshire, Scotland, has been named the cheapest area for a first-time buyer to get onto the property ladder.
The average asking price for a typical first-time buyer home in Kilmarnock is just over £84,000.
Greenock in Inverclyde is second on the list, with an average asking price of £88,862, whilst Grimsby in Lincolnshire is the third cheapest area with homes prices at £93,427.
Here are the 10 cheapest areas for first-time buyers with the lowest average house prices, according to Rightmove:
Kilmarnock is the cheapest place in the UK for first-time buyers.
Average asking price for a first-time buyer home: £84,325
Average asking price increase year-on-year: -1.0%
Greenock, Inverclyde
Average asking price for a first-time buyer home: £88,862
Average asking price increase year-on-year: +0.7%
Grimsby, Lincolnshire
Average asking price for a first-time buyer home: £93,427
Average asking price increase year-on-year: -1.2%
Blackpool, Lancashire
Average asking price for a first-time buyer home: £93,711
Average asking price increase year-on-year: 0.0%
Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire
Average asking price for a first-time buyer home: £95,473
Average asking price increase year-on-year: +0.8%
A scenic view of green Pendle Hill with the town of Burnley, Lancashire in the foreground
Burnley is one of the cheapest areas for first-time buyres(Image: Getty)
Hartlepool, Tees Valley
Average asking price for a first-time buyer home: £99,525
Average asking price increase year-on-year: +10.7%
Paisley, Renfrewshire
Average asking price for a first-time buyer home: £99,570
Average asking price increase year-on-year: +2.3%
East Kilbride, Glasgow
Average asking price for a first-time buyer home: £100,814
Average asking price increase year-on-year: +4.1%
Ayr, Ayrshire
Average asking price for a first-time buyer home: £101,391
Average asking price increase year-on-year: +1.0%
Burnley, Lancashire
Average asking price for a first-time buyer home: £102,848
Average asking price increase year-on-year: +6.2%
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