Where You Can't Afford to Live

The Guardian newspaper has created an interactive map which allows you to see where you can afford to buy a property in England and Wales based on your annual income. Unfortunately you probably can't afford to buy a house in most of the country.

If you earn the national average wage in England or Wales then you can not afford to buy a house in 93% of the country. That's right you can't afford to a buy even the smallest, worst kept properties, almost anywhere in the entire country. Don't worry though, if you do well and manage to raise you income to twice the national average salary then you just might be able to afford a house in one of the country's poorest neighborhoods

Unaffordable Country is a choropleth map which colours postcode areas based on the affordability of properties in the area. Type in your average salary and the map will show you all the areas where you can afford to live - or, as is more likely, all the places in the country where you can't afford to live.

For example, where I live, in one of the poorest boroughs in the whole country, you would need to earn around three times the average salary to be able to afford a house. In other words you would need to be in the top 5% to be able to afford to live in one of the country's poorest boroughs.