Luton named in top five most affordable commuter towns

Priced-out Londoners should head to the Bedfordshire town to afford a home, according to a study of commuter towns by Lloyds Bank.

The survey lists Luton as the town offering the fifth best deal for commuting to London when looking at the difference between average house prices, cost and time of commuting, and annual salaries.

On average homes sell for £186,752 in Luton making it one of the most affordable towns within an hour’s commute of the capital compared to £772,000 in central London.

Wellingborough in Northamptonshire was named as the most affordable with the average home selling for £160,245.

On average, London workers happy to commute for an hour each way will save £585,000 on a property purchase, said Lloyds, although they face annual season ticket costs for their travel of between £2,000-5,000.

The average London salary is just under £47,000, meaning that people choosing to live in Luton and commute to London can buy a house for just 3.5 times their average annual earnings.

The cost of rail fares for the travel was relatively small in comparison to the saving on house prices, and a commuter would need to travel for 91 years for the total rail costs to wipe out the difference in house prices.

Kettering, Peterborough and Chatham make up the rest of the top five.

The information was taken from the Lloyds Bank commuter towns survey, which looks at differences in house prices between the commuter town and the place of employment, as well as costs and time of commuting when travelling to work using the national rail system.