In zones 1 and 2 in London average property prices are sky high at £722,000, but in towns like Crawley, Newbury, Colchester and Chatham prices are a more reasonable £272,000.
Commuters have to pay an annual rail cost of £4,944 to get to and from the city, but for this to wipe out the differences to house prices your typical commuter would need to travel to and from London for 91 years – a tough ask.
Andrew Mason, mortgages director at Lloyds Bank, said: "It's no surprise, for London at least, that the further you commute the larger the difference in house prices – though, of course, the journey also gets longer and more expensive.
“The decision to commute is not simply a trade-off between financial costs and journey times. Quality of life is an important consideration and in nearly all towns in this survey housing affordability is significantly better with a London salary compared to what can be earned locally.”
London workers earn 22% more than outside the capital, or £8,500 more on average.
In 10 of the most affordable commuter towns the uplift in annual earnings by working in London is even higher, at nearly £13,000.
The Northamptonshire towns of Wellingborough and Kettering are the most affordable commuter towns, with prices in the former averaging at just £160,245.
For commuters who don’t want to move so far away, towns 20 minutes away from London such as Ilford, St. Albans and East Croydon are still £321,000 cheaper than in the capital.
The high cost of living in the city doesn’t apply to a number of other cities across the UK, as house prices in Warrington, Chorley, Huddersfield and Macclesfield (£168,000) are higher than in Manchester (£151,330).
