The quickest and slowest places to save for a house deposit in the UK

Deposits Unlocked: Cutting deposit saving time in half

Help is often offered to first time buyers through Government schemes, ISAs or stamp duty relief, but a new scheme could also help those moving up the ladder to buy their dream family home by slashing the deposit waiting time in half.

This is the Deposit Unlock scheme which allows buyers to purchase a new-build home from a registered HBF member, such as Cala Homes, with as little as a 5% deposit. Essentially this cuts the time to save in half, meaning the average time to save for a deposit in the UK goes from 13 years to 6 and a half.

For example, if someone was looking to purchase a property in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, the median price of a detached house is £330,000. This means a single person would need £33,000 for a 10% deposit, which, based on the median salary in the area, could take 11.4 years to save, based on saving 10% of the median salary in the area exclusively towards their deposit.

Deposit Unlock gives people the opportunity to cut this time in half, so instead of 11 years and 146 days, it becomes 5 years and 256 days, and that is just for a single person saving. Couples or those that are buying with someone else (like a friend or family member) can cut that number in half again, making it a more realistic 2 years and 310 days instead. Making the prospect of saving for a deposit a lot less daunting.

Location, location, location

Not all locations are equal when it comes to saving for a house deposit. Not only does the house price differ depending on where you live, but so does the median salary that people are likely to be working with too.

In order to discover where in the UK it is quickest (and slowest) to save for a deposit, we looked at the median house price (September 2022) and the median weekly salary in 132 UK towns and cities to find out how long it would take a single person to save for a 10% deposit for a detached house and an apartment, as well as splitting the time to a 5% deposit with the Deposit Unlock scheme.

The quickest places to save for a house deposit

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To show the locations where residents are likely to save their deposits the fastest, we have analysed the time to save based on 10% of the median salary for 10% of the median property deposit in each location.

If you are in the market for the coveted detached property then those in Aberdeen in Scotland have the best chance of a speedier journey of saving to purchase. Those in the location saving 10% of the average weekly pay will only need to save for 2 years and 172 days to achieve the 10% deposit of the median detached house price in this location.  But with Deposit Unlock, it would only take 1 year and 84 days.

In fact, all the top three locations for speedy deposit saving are in Scotland. The second location is Dundee where it would take an average of 4 years and 292 days to save a 10% deposit. In third place is the beautiful, historic city of Edinburgh, in which it would only take 4 years and 321 days to save for a 10% deposit for a detached house.

The UK locations where it is quickest to save for a detached house deposit

And the slowest place to save for a house deposit

If there’s the fastest place to save, there’s got to be the slowest place to save and major cities tend to be hot spots for this. As these hubs are filled with a bounty of amenities and usually plenty of job opportunities, homes here are hot commodities. Access and proximity to these advantages are usually what causes the higher property prices in these locations.

It’s probably no surprise that it’s a home in London that will take you the longest to save for. The median price of an apartment in the big smoke will set you back around £435,000 and will take you 11.1 years to save. A detached house in London has a median price of £1,487,000, taking a single person on the median salary 37.5 years to save for a 10% deposit.

In second and third place on the list of most expensive, and therefore are the slowest places to save for, due to their proximity to and excellent transport links to London, are Watford and Woking, taking 26.6 years and 23.9 years to save respectively.

However, looking at the bright side, if you only need 5% this cuts the time in half meaning that a London deposit would be 18 years and 274 days if saving alone. And if you’re buying as a couple or with a friend or family member, you could cut this in half again to 9 years and 136 days.

Explore commutable options instead

Why not move out to more rural areas?  Thanks to huge changes in flexible working, buying in a commuter town is now a more viable option for many people.

So, if you work in London but can’t quite stretch to London property prices, why not opt for a commutable option, doing so can knock an average of ten years off your saving deposit time. For example, Reading is a great option as the Elizabeth line runs directly to and from the hub, making it an easy commute and the average time to save for a detached house deposit in this location is 17 years. This, compared to London’s 37, plus with schemes like Deposit Unlock, this decreases to 9 and a half years.

Other great commuter locations include Peterborough and Hitchin with trains into Finsbury Park, London St Pancras and other London Thameslink stations.

The quickest place to save for an apartment deposit

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Not everyone covets a house, in fact, to save money during the cost-of-living crisis many are looking to right-size their living arrangements, and for some, this means an apartment is a perfect pick.

Those living and working in Aberdeen may be able to fast track to apartment ownership. Apartments in this city have a median price of just £69,290, which means based on the £621.30 median weekly salary in this area, it would only take a resident 2 years and 51 days of saving 10% of their salary to hit the 10% deposit goal, but only 1 year and 256 days to achieve a 5% deposit with Deposit Unlock.

For the second location, we move slightly south of Scotland to Barrow-in-Furness in the North West. Here it would take 2 years and 138 days to get to that 10% deposit and close behind in third place is Hartlepool, with it taking 2 years and 149 days to save.

The UK locations where it is quickest to save for an apartment deposit

Saving for a home can feel like a never-ending battle, but there are lots of helpful ways to make the process of buying your first home or even buying your next home go a little faster. Buying a new-build home not only boasts the benefits of no chain, better energy efficiency and sleek, modern designs but they’re in sought-after locations and are available with a range of incentives.  

Methodology:

The average time to save for a deposit was based on residents in the area saving 10% of their weekly salary to achieve 10% of the median price of each of the property types in those areas. The data sources used for each element can be found below:

Earnings and hours worked, place of work by local authority

House Price Statistics for Small Areas (HPSSAs)

Scotland and NI house prices

We do not offer mortgage advice. We recommend that you speak with an Independent Financial Adviser to help discuss your individual circumstances.