Can millennials save their way to a London property?

How quickly would common money-saving habits save you enough for a home?

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By

Matthew Boyle

Updated

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For many young people in London, buying their own property seems like a distant, unlikely goal. Despite a number of first-time buyer schemes now available, these would-be buyers remain put off by steep house prices, while others believe it’s more to do with the millennial generation’s frivolous spending habits. We decided to put these two theories to the test.

For every London borough, we crunched some numbers to get an estimate of how long different sacrifices would take to pay off in the form of a typical starter home. Would living on a budget be enough to save up for a house in London? If you want to know the saving times for other regions, check out our UK cities mortgage leaderboard.

Select a borough on the map below to explore our findings.

As you can see, the only feasible way to save up for a house is to move in with your parents, which is not always an option.

For less central boroughs, ditching transport costs in favour of a bike could save enough for a house in the ballpark of ten years. However, people living there are unlikely to be able to avoid using public transport, particularly if they work in the city.

A couple saving together, however, would obviously achieve their goal twice as fast.

Other frugal habits, although they would save money, won’t make a significant contribution towards a deposit.

On the whole, millennials hoping to buy a house need a healthy salary and cheaper rent.

See the stats for your borough

We ranked the boroughs in terms of how easy they are to save up for compared to the average. The borough of Barking and Dagenham sits comfortably at the top – unsurprisingly, since it has the lowest median dwelling prices – while Kensington and Chelsea was found to be the priciest.

Click any of the column headers to re-order the table.

Affordability rank Borough Average flat price Estimated monthly rent Estimated deposit for mortgage
1 Barking and Dagenham £200,000 £414 £30,400
2 Havering £233,000 £412 £35,416
3 Bexley £230,000 £401 £34,960
4 Sutton £266,750 £444 £40,546
5 Croydon £268,850 £433 £40,865
6 Hillingdon £276,375 £430 £42,009
7 Enfield £290,000 £483 £44,080
8 Redbridge £275,000 £411 £41,800
9 Bromley £315,000 £509 £47,880
10 Hounslow £323,000 £545 £49,096
11 Harrow £327,000 £462 £49,704
12 Newham £310,000 £430 £47,120
13 Merton £359,950 £554 £54,712
14 Lewisham £348,000 £508 £52,896
15 Waltham Forest £340,000 £452 £51,680
16 Kingston upon Thames £370,000 £529 £56,240
17 Barnet £384,999 £535 £58,520
18 Brent £375,000 £525 £57,000
19 Greenwich £375,000 £516 £57,000
20 Haringey £395,000 £562 £60,040
21 Ealing £400,000 £500 £60,800
22 Richmond upon Thames £450,000 £691 £68,400
23 Tower Hamlets £460,000 £656 £69,920
24 Lambeth £465,000 £676 £70,680
25 Southwark £460,000 £627 £69,920
26 Hackney £492,500 £693 £74,860
27 Wandsworth £572,050 £712 £86,952
28 Islington £570,000 £809 £86,640
29 Hammersmith and Fulham £616,000 £704 £93,632
30 Camden £665,000 £895 £101,080
31 City of London £833,200 £1,287 £126,646
32 Westminster £975,000 £1,182 £148,200
33 Kensington and Chelsea £1,022,500 £1,250 £155,420

Click here for more research. For all media enquiries, please contact

Matt Mckenna
Head of UK communications
T: +44 20 8191 8806
matt.mckenna@finder.com@MichHutchison/in/matthewmckenna2

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Matthew Boyle is a banking and mortgages publisher at Finder. He has a 7-year history of publishing helpful guides to assist consumers in making better decisions. In his spare time, you will find him walking in the Norfolk countryside admiring the local wildlife. See full bio

Matthew's expertise
Matthew has written 288 Finder guides across topics including:
  • Helping first-time buyers apply for a mortgage
  • Comparing bank accounts and highlighting useful features
  • Publishing easy-to-understand guides

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