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Cheapest places to live UK by region: ranked by average house price
Cheapest places to live UK by region, ranked: the North East averages £165,640 and London £554,430 in August 2026, with 12-month change and cash share.
- 4 min read
- Last reviewed 4 November 2026
- By Your Property Check team
Key answer
Part 1 of 7
The ranking
General information, not advice. This table ranks the 12 regions and nations in our data by the average price in the UK House Price Index (UK HPI) for August 2026, cheapest first. The index is published by HM Land Registry and the Office for National Statistics, with Registers of Scotland and Land and Property Services Northern Ireland. GOV.UK says the August 2026 report was published on 21 October 2026.
| Rank | Region | Average price | Change over 12 months | Cash share of sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North East | £165,640 | 3.2% | 29.8% |
| 2 | Scotland | £198,397 | 2.9% | 31.6% |
| 3 | Northern Ireland | £202,487 | 9.2% | not available |
| 4 | Yorkshire and The Humber | £209,266 | 1.8% | 27.1% |
| 5 | Wales | £216,363 | 3.1% | 27.9% |
| 6 | North West | £220,393 | 2.2% | 26.3% |
| 7 | East Midlands | £241,955 | 0.5% | 25.0% |
| 8 | West Midlands | £250,731 | 1.2% | 24.1% |
| 9 | South West | £304,139 | 0.0% | 31.1% |
| 10 | East of England | £337,848 | 0.2% | 25.0% |
| 11 | South East | £379,953 | -0.8% | 25.4% |
| 12 | London | £554,430 | -2.2% | 19.4% |
For comparison, the UK average is £273,037 (up 0.9%) and the England average is £293,525 (up 0.4%). The cash share is the share of sales made without a mortgage over the 12 months from October 2024 to September 2025, which is the window in our file, so it is older than the price column. It is not available for Northern Ireland in our data. See our page on cash buyers by region for more.
Part 2 of 7
What the ranking shows
- The cheapest region is the North East. It averages £165,640, up 3.2% over 12 months. Prices there are not falling on this measure.
- The most expensive is London, at £554,430, which is £388,790 above the North East. It is also the region with the biggest 12-month fall, at 2.2%.
- Northern Ireland shows the biggest 12-month rise, at 9.2%, from a low base.
- The gap is wide even by property type. The UK HPI average for a flat in London is £427,310, more than the North East's average detached house at £289,630. A North East flat averages £103,648.
Part 3 of 7
What a region average hides
A region is not a town. The North East average mixes city-centre flats with rural detached homes. The same goes for every other region in the table, and most of all London, where boroughs differ greatly. Use the table to see the broad picture and then look at your own area, for example with our sold prices tool, which shows what homes near a postcode actually sold for.
The figures are estimates, and GOV.UK says the UK HPI revision period is normally 12 months.
Part 5 of 7
Cheap does not mean low cost
Price is one cost of a place. Stamp duty depends on the price paid, so it is lower where prices are lower, but council tax, travel and local rents also matter. For council tax charges by city, see council tax by city, and for the costs of buying and selling see how much it costs to move house.
Part 6 of 7
Are prices falling in the cheapest region?
Not on the August 2026 figure. The North East is up 3.2% over 12 months. Only two regions in the table, the South East and London, show a fall. Our page on where house prices are falling looks at the detail by local authority.
Part 7 of 7
Limits
This ranking is for regions, not towns, and we do not rank towns here. The cash share is from an earlier window than the prices. Averages describe sales that happened, not the price of a home you might buy. They are not a forecast, and a region can move from one month's report to the next. To judge a particular home, compare it with recent sales on the same street, and use the free house value check as a second opinion rather than a verdict.
This page is general information, not advice.
Our take
Use regional averages as a map, not a price
Our view: a regional average is a starting point. The North East averages £165,640 and London £554,430 in August 2026, but every region mixes flats and detached homes, cities and villages. The mistake is to treat the average as the price of a particular home, and a cheap region is not always a low cost one once council tax and travel count.
What Your Property Check adds: our sold prices tool shows real HM Land Registry sales for any postcode, so you can see what homes near you actually sold for. Our free house value check adds an honest range, with the comparable sales and working shown.
Our opinion, drawn from the facts on this page: not advice and not a forecast. We earn from OfferCheck reports and from introducing sellers to cash buyers, so weigh it with that in mind (see our disclosure). We are not authorised or regulated by the FCA.
Questions, answered
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest region to buy a house in?
What is the most expensive region?
Are prices falling in the cheapest region?
What does a region average hide?
What does the cash share mean?
Where this comes from
Sources
Last reviewed 4 November 2026 by the Your Property Check team. This page is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. For your own situation, speak to a conveyancing solicitor or another qualified professional.