Online mortgage broker Trussle has published a list of what it claims to be the most affordable London commuter towns of 2019.
By analysing house prices, mortgage payments and rail season ticket costs across more than 300 towns within a 75-minute journey of central London, Trussle has produced a rank of the 20 leading commuting hotspots, while also listing the 10 least affordable locations.
The new list comes as rail fares are hiked up by 3.1% across the UK, adding significant cost to those commuting from the outer edges of London’s commuter belt, in some cases by more than £200 a year. Taking today’s price hikes into consideration, the number one spot goes to Apsley in Hertfordshire, a historic industrial site situated in a valley of the Chiltern Hills.
To live and get to work and back in Apsley costs the average person £1,139 a month. While some towns actually came in slightly cheaper, in assessing the merit of each, Trussle also considers the duration of the total commute by calculating the monetary value of this time using the average London wage. This helped Apsley clinch top spot, with its relatively short total commute of 52 minutes in total each day ‘priced’ at £327 a month – giving it a total of £1,446.
Taking second place is the town of Ebbsfleet in Kent, which offers a particularly short commute to London and back – just 36 minutes – while average property prices are also low, at just £243,000. In third place is the town of Tilbury in Essex, which benefits from a reasonably priced annual season ticket, at £2,448, or £204 a month.
Trussle also lists the ten least affordable commuter towns, with Oxshott rock-bottom thanks to an average property price of £1.7million. Virginia Water is the second least affordable location on the list, due to an average property price of £1.2 million and a hefty 87-minute daily commute to and from London Waterloo.
Ishaan Malhi, founder and CEO of online mortgage broker, Trussle, said: “House prices in London are unaffordable for a lot of people, so it’s little wonder that so many workers choose to commute from areas where they can get more for their money.
“This often comes at the price of hefty rail fares, and with the rise in transport costs, it’s important homeowners are taking this into consideration as they look to move house.”