Can the average buyer afford my house? The £301,000 line

Research by ValuQ: we analysed 576,950 house sales recorded by HM Land Registry in England and Wales between April 2025 and March 2026 and measured how many sold below the £301,000 price an average-income household can now afford.

What is the £301,000 affordability line?

The affordability line is the highest price a typical household can pay with a standard mortgage. Zoopla, in research reported on 15 October 2026, sets it at £301,000: a household earning £53,500 between them, borrowing 4.5 times that income and putting down a 20% deposit.

Zoopla found 51% of two and three bedroom houses for sale in Great Britain now sit under that line, up from 45% a year earlier, because incomes have grown faster than prices. Sales agreed are still 9% lower than last year, because mortgage rates are above 5% after starting the year at around 4%.

How many homes actually sold under £301,000?

Zoopla measured homes for sale; ValuQ checked homes that completed. Half of all houses sold in England and Wales in the year to March 2026, 50.7%, went for less than £301,000, and the median house sold for exactly £300,000. The line sits right in the middle of the market.

The two measures agree closely in most regions, which gives the finding weight: listings and completed sales tell the same story. The North East has more than four in five houses under the line. In London fewer than one in fifty sold below it.

Does it depend on the type of house?

Two in three terraced houses and three in five semis sold under the line. Only about one detached house in five did. If you own a terraced or semi-detached home outside London and the South East, the odds are good that the average-income buyer can reach your price.

What does it look like in a commuter town such as Basildon?

In Basildon fewer than one house in six sold under the line, and fewer than one semi in thirteen. Most Basildon sellers are selling to buyers with above-average incomes or equity from a home of their own. That is typical of the commuter belt around London, where the East of England figure is 31.9%.

Which side of the line is my home on, and why does it matter?

• Under the line: your home is within reach of the widest pool of buyers, including many first-time buyers. In England, first-time buyers also pay no stamp duty on a home up to £300,000.
• Close to the line: a few thousand pounds either side can change how many buyers can afford you. This is where pricing on evidence matters most.
• Above the line: most of your buyers will be movers with equity, so their purchase often depends on selling their own home first. Expect a chain and plan your timing around it.

Half the houses in England and Wales sell below the line. Knowing which half yours is in shapes everything that follows.

The only way to know which side you are on is a valuation built on recent local sales. ValuQ gives UK homeowners free, side-by-side property valuations from competing local estate agents, so you see the honest range for your home before you decide when, or whether, to sell.

How did ValuQ do this?

How we did this: ValuQ analysed HM Land Registry Price Paid Data (download of 28 August 2026). We took standard residential sales (category A) of detached, semi-detached and terraced houses completed between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026, grouped them into regions by county, and counted the share that sold below £301,000.

Land Registry records no bedroom count, so our figures cover all houses (no flats), where Zoopla's cover two and three bedroom houses for sale. Our data covers England and Wales; Zoopla's Great Britain figure also includes Scotland. We stopped at March 2026 because later months are still being registered.