If you are looking to buy a house for the first time or downsize to a cheaper mortgage there are currently 217 residential communities in England where the average home costs less than £100,000, according to Land Registry data sourced from the Office for National Statistics. So, today we take a look at the cheapest neighbourhoods in England to secure a house.

Are you looking to buy a house this year? Let’s find out your best options.

Shildon (County Durham)

For the third year in a row, the town of Shildon in County Durham has been crowned the cheapest place to purchase a house in England. So, has Shildon held onto its name? The average household in the United Kingdom has to pay four times their combined earnings to purchase a home in 2022 – this shrinks to 1.1 times to purchase a home in Shildon. So this small town wins the affordability ratings with an average home price of £71,000, fueled by the prominence of terraced housing.

The DL4 postcode of Shildon is particularly the most affordable area to buy a property in England. The town is also perfect for those looking to live somewhere more peaceful – but still easily reachable to the city. With a population of just under 10,000 residents, Shildon is home to a tight-knit community, making it truly the best of both worlds.

While the northwest of England is generally out of favour for most Londoners, with prices as low as £27,000 for a two-bedroom terrace house, it’s astonishing why Shildon isn’t on their radar. Shildon’s cheapest homes are on sale for the same price as a small garage in London. For what an individual spends on purchasing an average-priced home in London, one can get ten average-priced properties in Shildon.

Stanley (County Durham)

In this former coal-mining town in County Durham, one of the worst pit disasters in British history took place in Stanley in February 1909 when over 160 people were killed in a local coal mine. However, there has been some serious investment in the town in recent times, including enhanced leisure facilities, a new swimming pool, and a bus interchange that runs on solar energy.

More upgrades are being planned, and Stanley already has an acclaimed performance venue, the Lamplight Arts Centre, which hosts events ranging from boxing matches to stand up comedy, and music concerts. Stanley has a good supply of supermarkets, and there is a biweekly market held on Thursdays and Saturdays.

With the closure of the coal pits and the loss of other major employers in the area, Stanley has endured difficult times economically for much of the last two decades, and local house prices reflect this. A basic three-bedroom terraced house can be bought here for around £80,000.

This is the second town from County Durham to feature in our list today, as buyers in these towns can expect to pay only up to 1.5 times the average two-earner household salary for a house here. This is compared to the United Kingdom as a whole, where the average household can expect to pay as much as four times that amount.

Grimsby (North East Lincolnshire)

A major seaport on England's East coast, Grimsby lies on the South Bank of the Humber Estuary near where it meets the North Sea. The Grimsby-Cleethorpes conurbation offers the cultural and industrial emphasis for a large area of northern and eastern Lincolnshire. Despite its gloomy name, Grimsby is a busy, colourful town with a lively pub and club scene, a vast shopping centre and fantastic transport links, including a small airport.

However, the loss of the major part of its fishing industry in the 1990s and 2000s left a bulk unemployed, effectively crushing property prices in the town. Although job prospects are better now than they were, it is still perfectly feasible to buy a small, three-bedroom house in Grimsby for around £65,000, with some DIY projects and tenanted buy-to-let properties costing even less.

The average house price in the DN31 postcode of Grimsby sits at £71,105. Meanwhile, the nearby property prices in the DN32 postcode cost around £97,652. This port town also exudes charm and heritage, with a rich fishing and trawlermen history, just waiting to be explored.

Liverpool (Merseyside)

The scouse central, Liverpool is famous for its musical and artistic heritage, being the birthplace of The Beatles and Cilla Black. The city has a generous supply of affordable three-bedroom terraced houses. The cheapest examples from this area are priced a little under £80,000. There are also several attractive, basic properties available in the Liverpool, Bootle and Netherton areas in the £80,000 to £90,000 price range. Shared ownership schemes seem to be popular in these areas, and many affordable brand-new homes come to the market offering 25% to 75% shared ownership.

In recent times, Liverpool has hopped onto an ambitious and far-reaching revitalisation programme, and it is now considered to be one of Britain's leading centres for culture and business. But the generous supply of cheap housing seems to tell a different story. It might just be that the housing prices are only temporarily lagging behind the bigger picture. There has been a notable rise in house prices at the lower end of the scale, as buy-to-letters seek out fresh territories, and first-time-buyer schemes offer a helping hand to people climbing the property ladder. While homes in this town are in hot pursuit, you can still find many houses well below the average UK asking price.

Rhondda (Glamorgan)

Rhondda is an area of extraordinary charm and natural beauty in the Welsh Rhondda Valley. A three-bedroom terraced home can be bought for as little as £65,000. They can be purchased either through a standard estate agency route or through a property auction for a lot less. Several houses in the Tonypandy, Maerdy and Ferndale area go for that figure, while several others are available in the £65,000 to £75,000 price bracket.

While this region has shown a steady rise in prices in recent years, it still exhibits outstanding value compared to other parts of the United Kingdom. Interestingly, the housing prices in this region have hardly been impacted by the recent stamp duty holiday.

The Rhondda Valley was once known for its many coal mines, however, the closure of local pits in the 1990s left a bulk unemployed much like Stanley. The supply of cheap homes for sale in this region is a reflection of the pain that these communities endure today.  However, the nearby Tonypandy town presents greater employment opportunities being the principal town of the Rhondda Valley.

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