Wales least affordable part of Britain for first-time buyers
Wales is the most difficult part of Great Britain for first-time buyers to get onto the property ladder, according to new data.
A home affordability index report published by Skipton Group building society found six out of the 10 least affordable areas of Britain were in Wales.
The index considers a range of factors including house prices in local areas as well as the average income of potential first-time buyers.
The Welsh government said it understood the difficulties facing first-time buyers and had extended the Help to Buy Wales scheme.
House prices plunge as council acts on second homes
'I was homeless while revising for my GCSEs'
Where are Welsh homes most and least affordable?
Ceredigion and Powys were found to be the least affordable areas of Wales for first-time buyers.
Average house prices in Ceredigion were £236,000, higher than the Wales average.
That is despite the county having "the seventh lowest median income in Great Britain" and means less than 3% of potential first-time buyers living in the area can afford to buy, according to the report.
Owen Shiers, 40, a freelance musician who lives in a social housing co-operative near Eglwys-fach, Ceredigion, said he had "given up" on owning his own home.
Mr Shiers pays rent and, with the other tenants, is responsible for managing and maintaining the house.
He said he was not surprised that Ceredigion came bottom of the affordability league.
"I think people forget that Ceredigion is one of the poorest areas of northern Europe," said Mr Shiers.
"There's gross inequality between the people who maybe have grown up here and who are part of the economic system in Ceredigion, and the people who often come from the big cities who have a lot of money."
Mr Shiers said he had thought about buying a house but "it seems so insurmountable to me, given my own economic situation.
"I have worried about it, but I've kind of given up. It just seems impossible."
He said he was worried about the impact on Ceredigion.
"I see it having a far wider effect on the Welsh language and Welsh culture and the ability of young people to stay in the places where they've grown up.
"My sister couldn't afford to buy a house in the village where we grew up. She's got a young family and had to move quite far away.
"We often only find out how bad that has been when it's too late. It's a bit like watching a car crash in slow motion. You feel powerless to stop it."
Ceredigion - 2.7% of first-time buyers can afford to buy
Powys - 2.7% of first-time buyers can afford to buy
Pembrokeshire - 2.9% of first-time buyers can afford to buy
Cardiff - 3% of first-time buyers can afford to buy
Vale of Glamorgan - 3.1% of first-time buyers can afford to buy
Monmouthshire - 3.3% of first-time buyers can afford to buy
Source: Skipton Group Home Affordability Index Report
Stuart Haire, Skipton Group's chief executive, said people "might expect London and the south-east to dominate the least affordable areas for first-time buyers, so it's shocking to see Wales feature so heavily".
"The first step onto the property ladder remains by far the hardest, but for Welsh first-time buyers, it must feel impossible.
"Our new data shows just how stark their affordability challenge is."
Tania Dutnell, an estate agent in Ceredigion, said another issue affecting first-time buyers in the county was the type of properties for sale.
There are "a lot of large properties…we don't have many small (houses) or lots of terraced houses. There's lots of different properties on the higher end of the stock market", said Ms Dutnell.
She also said that interest rate rises in recent years had made things more difficult.
"For the first time buyers, you've got options of staying with parents, and the bank of mum and dad to help to get deposits together.
"Or you are in rented accommodation [which] is very expensive, and all the money that you earn tends to go onto that, so it's very hard to save."
Ceredigion council said its planning department had a target of 20% of all houses to be affordable across the county.
It said that target has been exceeded, with 37% of permitted houses and 33% of all houses built since the adoption of the Local Development Plan being affordable.
A council spokesperson added: "The council has also introduced a Community Housing Scheme, an equity sharing product, to support people to get on the housing ladder."
The Welsh government said it understood the difficulties facing first-time buyers.
A spokesperson said: "In December, we launched the extension of our Help to Buy Wales scheme which has helped more than 14,500 people who could not afford to buy a home.
"Our Self Build Wales scheme also creates opportunities for people to build homes through loan funding for land and development costs."
'We gave our two houses to the homeless'
Floods, ceiling holes and loose sockets - life in a new-build
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Concerns over £72 million shortfall's impact on council services
A local Senedd Member has raised concerns about a £72 million funding shortfall's effect on council services. Peter Fox has written to Monmouthshire Council's leader regarding the impact of the shortfall in employer National Insurance (NI) funding. The shortfall comes following the UK Government decision to increase NI contributions without providing full funding to local authorities, leaving public sector bodies to pay more to employ staff. Mark Drakeford, Labour's finance secretary, assured in November that additional funding would cover these increased costs. This week, he revealed the UK government would not provide full funding, leaving a £72 million shortfall across Welsh public services. Mr Fox said: "Mark Drakeford assured us that these tax increases would not fall on the public sector, so last week's news was bitterly disappointing. "Local authorities will now face a difficult choice: either cut vital services or raise council tax to cover the extra costs."
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
Two more Welsh politicians defect to Nigel Farage's Reform UK
Reform leader Nigel Farage has used a keynote speech in Wales to announced that two more Welsh councillors have defected. Speaking in Port Talbot, he announced independent councillors Andrew Barry and David Hughes, both members of Merthyr Tydfil council, have joined Reform UK. They were welcomed to the stage during a speech that has given his first glimpses of policies ahead of the election. Mr Farage said the party would allow coal mining again in Wales and says its long term plan is to "reopen the Port Talbot steelworks". Cllr Barry, who has had the cabinet brief for finance, says he has seen "waste" in the system during his time. He said: "The people making the decisions on those hundreds of thousands of pounds are unelected members of the council. READ MORE: Reform UK's Nigel Farage's eight election policies for Wales READ MORE: Huge Winter Fuel Payment U-turn means millions more will get it this year "I see Reform as the only opposition in Wales." You can follow live updates from the speech here. Meanwhile David Hughes, who had previously had the housing and social services brief, spoke of "waste" within councils. "I've come over to Reform because there's so much waste where money is being spent, we need to get into procurement to make sure money is being spent correctly". "It sounds like every Welsh council needs a DOGE," Mr Farage joked. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here The most recent poll for Wales suggests Reform is in line to take its first seats in the Senedd at the election in May 2026. Its only representation in Wales at the moment is with councillors, but a YouGov/Barn Cymru poll which asked people their voting intention for the Welsh Parliament in May put Reform UK in second with 25% of the vote. They were only behind Plaid Cymru who were projected to get 30% of the vote and ahead of Labour's 18%. You can read that here. In an opinion piece for WalesOnline, the party leader has given his first glimpses of policies ahead of the election. Mr Farage has said the party would allow coal mining again in Wales and says its long term plan is to "reopen the Port Talbot steelworks". The steelworks, owned by Tata, have not closed but its remaining blast furnaces were closed in 2024, with work now ongoing to build an electric arc furnace which will recycle previously-used steel. Thousands of jobs are being lost as part of the change. The Indian-owned company said the blast furnaces were at the end of their operational lives and too expensive to replace. The Port Talbot steelworks were, the company said, losing £1m a day before the blast furnaces were turned off. Reform UK say it would "use Welsh Development Grants to support real industry. We'll redirect economic funding from consultants and NGOs to actual factory floors, machinery, and industrial jobs in places like Llanelli, Shotton, and Ebbw Vale". Nigel Farage has also said the party would also set up "regional technical colleges" for people to have a "path into proper trade". The party would also, it says, stop any building being used for asylum seeker accommodation, end funding to the Welsh Refugee Council and scrap the Welsh Government's "Nation of Sanctuary". It also vowed to set up an Elon Musk style department to cut costs. "A Reform UK Senedd will also save hundreds of millions each year by cutting bureaucracy, waste and bad management." "The establishment of Welsh DOGE will help us uncover where there is woke and wasteful spending and we will make sure those funds are redirected to frontline services," Mr Farage pledges.
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Yahoo
Nigel Farage's pitch for Welsh elections: bring back coalmining
Nigel Farage has demanded the reopening of domestic coalmines to provide fuel for new blast furnaces, arguing that Welsh people would happily return to mining if the pay was sufficiently high. Speaking at an event in Port Talbot, the south Wales town traditionally associated with the steel industry, the Reform UK leader said it was in the 'national interest' to have a guaranteed supply of steel, as well as UK-produced fuel for the furnaces, a close echo of Donald Trump's repeated pledges to return heavy industry to the US. Pressed on whether this was a realistic plan, particularly given that even if Wales did elect a Reform-run Senedd next May it could be blocked by Westminster, Farage conceded that the idea was most likely only realistic if done in conjunction with the national government. 'Our belief is that for what uses coal still has, we should produce our own coal,' he told the event, intended to boost Reform's prominence in Wales in the run-up to next year's elections. 'I'm not saying, let's open up all the pits. What I am saying is there is coal, specific types of coal for certain uses, that we still need in this country, and we certainly will need for the blast furnaces here, that we should produce ourselves rather than importing. 'We are going to be using more steel over the next few years than we probably ever used, as we increase military spending and as we attempt a housebuilding programme … We are going to need a lot of steel. Our belief is we should be producing our own steel.' Asked during a media Q&A how long it would take to reopen defunct blast furnaces such as the Tata steel plant in Port Talbot which shut last year, and if this was even possible, Farage accepted it would be difficult, needing 'a change of mindset'. He said: 'Nothing's impossible, but it might be difficult. It might be easier to build a new one.' Quizzed on what evidence he had that young Welsh people would want to go down coalmines, Farage replied: 'If you offer people well-paying jobs, you'd be surprised. Many will take them, even though you have to accept that mining is dangerous.' Pressed then on whether even a Reform-run Welsh government could not achieve this alone, Farage accepted this was probably the case: 'It's difficult to know just how much leverage the Welsh government can have over these things. It probably needs to work in conjunction with a national government. It needs a complete change of philosophy. It needs a scrapping of net zero.' A YouGov poll last month of voting intentions in Wales found Plaid Cymru leading with 30%, but Reform on 25%, ahead of Labour and the Conservatives. In his speech, Farage said Reform 'hit a speed bump last week' with the sudden resignation of Zia Yusuf as the party's chair, although Yusuf did subsequently say he would return to carry on leading efforts to find costs to cut in Reform-run councils. Farage denied that he repeatedly falls out with colleagues, saying some people had worked with him for 25 years, and that he was still friends with former employees from his City of London metals trading job in the 1990s. But he added: 'I am someone that maintains long-term friendships, and I'll do that, but if ever anybody talks behind my back, or if anybody betrays that trust, then I'll never speak to them again. Quite simple, and they should expect the same level of trust back from me.'
