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Luton · report

Affordability in Luton

At the average sale price, a home costs £285,800. With 10% down and a 30-year mortgage, the payment is £1,319 a month. The UK sets no cap on the payment; no more than 15% of new mortgages may lend over 4.5 times income.

Payment, two incomes
23%
Payment, one income
46%

Try your own numbers

Starting from the average sale price of £285,800 in Luton, the median pay of a full-time employee, £34,732 a year before tax (2025, Luton), and a mortgage rate of 4.6% (August 2026).

Assumptions
The median is one full-time employee's pay before tax: two incomes is a couple who both earn it.
4.6

The payment takes 23% of pay before tax. The UK sets no limit on it.

Home price
£285,800
Monthly payment
£1,319
Share of pay before tax
23%

The mortgage payment as a share of income, year by year

The average home with 10% down over 30 years, at each year's average price and rate, against one and against two of that year's median full-time pay.

  • Two median incomes
  • One median income
Show the numbers
PeriodTwo median incomesOne median income
202522.0%43.9%
202423.5%46.9%
202323.9%47.9%
202218.9%37.8%
202117.0%34.0%
202015.5%31.1%
201916.0%31.9%
201817.7%35.4%
201716.8%33.6%
201617.3%34.6%

Income is the median gross annual pay of a full-time employee living in the area (ONS, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings), before tax: one person's pay, not a household's income. Northern Ireland's councils take Northern Ireland's figure. The UK sets no limit on the payment as a share of income: no more than 15% of new mortgages may lend over 4.5 times income, and lenders test each borrower against higher rates. The Bank of England's rate on new mortgages starts in 2016, so earlier years show no payment.

Other reports for Luton

Sale prices have an 80% chance of landing between £277,628 and £315,680 by August 2027.

Expected, August 2027
£296,654
Chance of a rise
77%

Renting the average home costs less each month than owning it. Owning counts interest, running costs and the return the deposit could earn, at the average sale price; rent is the average of all private tenancies. Repaying the loan is saving, so it is left out.

Rent per month
£1,231
Owning per month
£1,346

52.5% more homes were started in the last 12 months than in an average year of the past decade.

Started, 12 months
400
Per 1,000 residents
1.7

Figures for United Kingdom: Luton has no reliable figures of its own.

Buyers living abroad bought 1.8% of the homes sold here in the four quarters to Q1 2025.

Bought by buyers abroad, 12 months
1.8%

Sale prices have fallen by 3% or more 4 times since 1995. The deepest began in October 2007.

Deepest fall
−23.0%
Recovery from the low
65 months

In 2025 the population fell by 1,677 while 50 homes were finished.

Homes finished, 2025
50
Population change, 2025
−1,677

3.7% of the 81,956 homes counted in the 2021 census had nobody usually living in them.

Empty, 2021 census
3.7%
Empty homes
3,015

In 2025, 11% of the homes added came from existing buildings rather than new ones.

Homes from existing buildings, 2025
11%