The most affordable commuter towns for workers heading into London, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh have been revealed by a property website.
As some commuters grapple with the cost of train fare hikes, Zoopla looked at combined season ticket and mortgage costs to work out the best value locations for those looking to live within an hour’s travel time of the five cities.
Grays in Essex tops the list as the best value commuter spot for London with combined annual costs of £15,008 for a mortgage and season ticket.
Elsewhere, Wolverhampton (£7,483) was highlighted as the top option for Birmingham, Hindley (£6,883) came out first for those commuting into Manchester, and Dunfermline (£7,530) was revealed as the most cost-effective option for Edinburgh.
However, people travelling into Bristol for work may want to look over the border to Wales to find better value.
Zoopla found that Newport in South Wales comes top for value, with combined train travel and mortgage costs of £10,166.
Laura Howard, consumer expert at Zoopla, said: “The past decade has seen significant property price growth in prime London commuter belt towns but despite this our analysis still picks out pockets across South East England that represent affordable value for commuters.
“Areas outside London and the South East are generally more affordable, but commuters can still save money on their daily travel into the likes of Birmingham and Bristol by looking at towns they might not have yet considered, but still have good transport links.”
The research made certain assumptions about typical mortgage costs, which were based on someone having a two or three bedroom home and a 15% deposit for their mortgage.
Travel times and the 2020 annual railcard costs were taken from the National Rail enquiries website.
Here are London’s most affordable commuter towns, according to Zoopla, with the postcode and the typical combined annual mortgage and season ticket cost for 2020:
1. Grays, RM17, £15,008.07
2. Leagrave, LU4, £15,399.50
3. Crayford, DA1, £15,662.53
4. Basildon, SS16, £15,805.84
5. Harlow, CM20, £15,958.86
