With renting prices as relatively high as it currently is all around the UK, it’s often a very daunting task for first time buys to make that initial leap onto the housing market.
No matter how daunting this is outside of the capital, it is doubled when people rent in London, never mind looking for a mortgage. See this from the Telegraph to find out more about expensive renting.
This from the Guardian shows just how hard it is to currently buy a house in London, a city in which a couple of million earn a living.
Thankfully here at Search Mortgage Solutions, our mortgage brokers in London like to help you get the best possible deal on your mortgage, no matter where you are buying. That’s why we have put together this list of the 5 cheapest boroughs of London for first time buyers.

Barking & Dagenham

The cheapest for two years running is Barking and Dagenham, which is the second most easterly of the boroughs.
The average house price here ranges between £230,000 -£270,000, which works out at nearly 6 times the average earnings in Barking & Dagenham, this is why this area is popular with young professionals and new families who might work in the City of London.
The centre is still very accessible from here by train. Simply by getting a direct tube from Dagenham Heathway, you can be in Charing Cross in around 45 minutes.

Bexley

Just south of the river to Barking & Dagenham is Bexley, another of the cheaper places to hop onto the housing market.
Average house prices are currently around £280,000, whilst the average rent is £919, which make it a fairly popular place to save for a mortgage too.
The average earnings to house price ratio jumps up to 7.9 in Bexley, however as it will become clear, people who buy in these areas will work in the centre of London.
Bexley is a bit further from the centre and therefore takes just over an hour to reach Charing Cross. Try either Bexley Heath station or Albany Park. 

Croydon

One of the worst hit areas in the 2011 London riots was the southerly borough of Croydon. What this has done however has cued a big scale regeneration of the area.
The average house price here jumps up to £320,000 with the house price to earnings ratio a little lower than Bexley at 7.6.
Croydon earns its higher average price by taking much quicker to get to the city centre, just over 30 minutes from East Croydon Station.

Newham

Newham is a London Borough formed from the former Essex boroughs of West and East Ham. Newham is the home of West Ham United’s (soon to be closed) Upton Park and the Olympic park (their new home).
The average price in Newham is between £315-£320,000 and the earnings to house price ratio is 7.82. It is a popular area for young professionals who work in Canary Warf.
Charing Cross is a short 45-50-minute journey depending whether you leave from Plaistow Police bus station or Upton Park Underground Station respectively.

Sutton

In the far south of London and bordering Croydon you’ll find leafy Sutton, which because of its distance from the financial districts is more popular with young families.
The average house price in this area is around £330,000 with earnings to house price ratio of 8.34.
Sutton, like Croydon, has really good links to the centre of London, taking just 45-50 minutes from Sutton train station.
If you are looking to get on the property ladder in London but are put off by the scary headlines of shocking prices, hopefully these five areas may come across as more manageable.