Commuters to the capital paying much less for property - Halifax

Monday, 19 September 2011 10:21

Workers who commute to London from outside the city are benefitting from house prices that are 60 per cent lower, according to new research by Halifax.

The building society revealed that houses an hour from the capital are on average £375,000 cheaper than in the centre.

This more than offsets the average £4,400 annual cost of a sixty-minute journey into central London, it added.

Peterborough, Manningtree, Swindon and Rochester - all of which are an hour from the city - have an average property price of £245,000, compared with £620,000 in the capital. 

Meanwhile, the report added, towns such as Chelmsford, Milton Keynes, Reading and Sevenoaks - all of which are 30 minutes by train into the city - cost an average of £275,000.

Even places like Watford and Bromley which are 15 minutes away are £300,000 lower than in central London, it continued.

Leeds, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Cardiff, are other cities where prices are lower outside the main urban areas.

In Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham, however, the trend is reversed, with many towns outside the main city area more expensive than those in the centre.

Nitesh Patel, housing economist at Halifax, commented: "It's no surprise, for London at least, the longer your commute, the larger the difference in house prices. Commuters to London tend to get a lot more for their money than in central London; bigger houses for lower prices.

"Nonetheless, the decision to commute is not simply a trade-off between financial costs and journey times. Quality of life is also important: family circumstances, better schools, physical environment and homes that offer better value for money also come into the equation.

"This explains why, especially outside London, commuters are often prepared to pay a premium to commute when they could be better off in purely financial terms living closer to their place of work."

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