The two towns near Greater Manchester where homes cost less than £100k

Property prices continue to be high across our region, especially in Manchester. The latest Land Registry data has shown that homes in Greater Manchester sold for an average price of £258,000 over the last year, with house prices in Manchester reaching £300,520.

Faced with continuous high demand and low supply, these soaring costs are making it difficult for first-time buyers as well as those looking to move up the property ladder. This week we revealed the cheapest areas to buy a home in the UK, where the average cost of a house starts from £69,000.

Amongst the top 20 cheapest postcodes are two towns not far from Greater Manchester in Lancashire, which offer much lower property prices yet are still within commuting distance – making them a more affordable alternative.

READ MORE: The latest average cost to buy a home in every Greater Manchester postcode area

Blackpool

The FY1 postcode, which covers Blackpool town centre, is one of the cheapest areas to live in the country. According to the latest data, the average house price is £109,430, which is six percent lower than the peak of £166,368 in 2021.

The majority of sales in Blackpool during the last year were semi-detached properties, selling for an average price of £168,000. Terraced properties sold for an average of £114,820, with flats fetching £90,250.

For those wanting to commute to Manchester, Blackpool is just over an hour’s drive away or there is a direct train from Blackpool North to Manchester Piccadilly which takes a similar amount of time.

There are a variety of properties currently on the market in the postcode area, including this two-bed terraced house which is on the market for a bargain price of £87,500.

The mid-terrace is being sold with onward chain and boasts an entrance porch, hallway, lounge, dining room and kitchen on the ground floor. Upstairs there is a landing with two double bedrooms and a bathroom, and there is an enclosed garden at the rear.

Burnley

House prices in BB11, which covers Burnley, are amongst the most affordable in the UK. Homes in the area sell for around £108,078 on average, making it a much cheaper option to buy a house than in Manchester.

The average property price has gone down by 13.7 percent in the last year, as house prices were slightly higher at an average of £125,270 in 2023.

The majority of sales in Burnley during the last year were terraced properties, selling for an average price of just £94,345, followed by semi-detached properties selling for an average of £174,110.

Amongst the cheapest homes currently on the market in BB11 is this two-bed terraced house priced at £99,950. The ‘deceptively spacious’ home benefits from two spacious reception rooms, a modern fitted kitchen and two generously sized bedrooms as well as an enclosed yard to the front and back.

Gareth Dooley, who is the director of Jon Simon estate agents’ Burnley branch, says he has seen an influx of buyers relocating from Manchester.

“It’s certainly the case. Given our cheaper house prices and the improved rail links Manchester is far more commutable now than it was 10 years ago,” he said.

“A train from Manchester Road station in Burnley takes less than an hour to get into central Manchester and with the M65 motorway network on our doorstep, a drive can even be less than that.”

Middlesbrough is the cheapest place to buy a home in the whole of England and Wales. Homes in the TS1 postcode area, which covers the town’s centre, sold for an average of just £69,157 in the last year up until the end of April.

Grimsby is the next cheapest place in the country to buy a home, where houses sold for £77,951 each on average in the DN31 postcode area. On the other end of the scale, Belgravia has the highest average house price of any postcode area in England and Wales, with properties selling for an average of £4.26m.