Britain's 10 most affordable cities Oxford, the city of dreaming spires, was named as the UK's least affordable city, where house prices are almost 10 times earnings. The 10 least affordable cities to buy a home in were all in the South of England, where house prices tend to have held up more strongly. They include Salisbury, Bath, Brighton and Exeter, as well as St Albans and Chichester. Huge variations were also found within London, with homes costing 5.7 times local earnings in Greenwich compared with 13.7 times the typical salary in the City of Westminster. Living in a city is generally a more expensive option than the average cost of a home, which is around 5.4 times earnings across the UK. The long-term average, according to some previous studies, is between 4 and 4.5, suggesting that the market is overpriced against these norms. The findings are published after the Government unveiled fresh plans to help bolster the property market with a new multibillion-pound Help to Buy scheme. The Government has been warned that the scheme must not create a "housing bubble" and push up house prices to an extent which could eventually lead to a crisis. Surveyors and lenders have been reporting signs of confidence returning to the market following the launch of another Government scheme last August called Funding for Lending, which has prompted lenders to slash their mortgage rates and the number of mortgages on the market to increase by around one third. Nitesh Patel, housing economist at Lloyds TSB, said that despite the recent dip in home affordability, the average price of a city home is way below its peak of 7.2 times earnings in 2008. Mr Patel said: "There has been a significant improvement in housing affordability in many of our major urban conurbations over the past five years, largely reflecting the general decline in house prices since 2008. There is a very clear North-South divide to the locations of the most affordable UK cities with significantly better affordability in the North in general. Most affordable cities, including ratio of prices vs wages Londonderry, Northern Ireland, 3.38 2. Lisburn, Northern Ireland, 3.50 3. Belfast, Northern Ireland, 3.67 4. Stirling, Scotland, 3.81 5. Bradford, Yorkshire and the Humber, 3.98 6. Salford, North West, 4.11 7. Glasgow, Scotland, 4.23 8. Lancaster, North, 4.28 9. Hull, Yorkshire and the Humber, 4.32 10. Sunderland, North, 4.43 Least affordable cities Oxford, South East, 9.66 2. Salisbury, South West, 8.57 3. Bath, South West, 8.23 4. Truro, South West, 8.15 5. Winchester, South East, 8.04 6. Brighton and Hove, South East, 7.67 7. Cambridge, East Anglia, 7.55 8. Chichester, South East, 7.44 9. Exeter, South West, 7.25 10. St Albans, South East, 7.09 What next for house prices? See updates in our newsletter