The places in England where you can afford to buy a home with one salary

When it comes to getting on the property ladder, it goes without saying that it’s easier when you have two salaries to factor in.

For single people, there’s only one deposit and one salary going towards the mortgage application.

If you don’t have a beau to split everything with, it’s not a completely lost cause, as new research has revealed the areas in England where it’s easiest to get on the property ladder with just one salary.

Crucially, these places are fairly tangible for the average wage packet, and you don’t need to be a super high earner to manage it.

The most affordable place is Burnley up in the North West, where the median pay is £29,680. Compared to the average house price (which is £129,556), this necessitates a 10% deposit of £12,956.

This means those looking to buy in the area will end up with a mortgage of £116,600.

In second place is Hartlepool, where the typical house will set you back £129,129, which necessitates a salary of at least £28,830.

Keeping in mind a 10% deposit, this amounts to a £12,913 downpayment.

Of course, this isn’t an insignificant figure, but in 2024, the average first-time buyer deposit sat at around 20%, reaching £61,090 for a £311,034 home.

In Hartlepool specifically, putting down the amount above would necessitate a mortgage of £116,216.

Next in the study, from Sell House Fast, comes Middlesbrough, where the average salary is £30,253 and a home typically costs £139,005.

If you want to get on the ladder, a 10% deposit will set you back £13,901, which gives you a mortgage of £125,105 to pay back.

County Durham, Hull, and Blackpool also featured on the list, where the average home costs £138,767, £135,051 and £134,732 respectively.

Is solo buying the future of homeownership?

Elsewhere, new statistics find it’s actually more common to buy your first home solo in 2026 than it was pre-1980.

The insight, commissioned by Barclays, finds single first-time buyers are now more than twice as prevalent, which the bank attributes towards changing lifestyles and a stronger desire for financial independence.

A mere 15% of people who bought their first home before 1980 say they achieved it by themselves, and 83% of this generation of homeowners got on the ladder for the first time with a partner.

However, between 2020 and 2026, this figure has dropped to 54%, while in June, more than one third of completions (36.9%), were made by solo buyers.

Naturally, that’s not to say that it’s at all easy for people to become homeowners by themselves; statistically, single women are the least likely cohort to be able to afford it, largely owing to the gender pay gap.

In fact, one previous study published by the Women’s Budget Group found women need more than 12 times their annual salaries to be able to buy a home in England, but men need just over eight times.

The situation actually worsens in both London and the South East, as women need to earn anywhere between 18 times and 16 times their paycheck just to gain mortgaged access to their own four walls.

Again, research published by SpareRoom in 2026 found women are more likely to be rent-burdened than men, with 79% spending more than 30% of their monthly paycheck on rent, compared to 69%.

This has a direct impact on their ability to save for a deposit, with a further 71% of women expecting they won’t be in a position to buy a home in the future, mainly because they don’t earn enough to get a mortgage.

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