Four Nations, Four Markets

UK housing figures are usually reported as a single national number, but England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have meaningfully different housing markets. Comparing dwellings per capita, average house prices, and the price-to-earnings ratio across all four shows where the pressure is actually concentrated ^[1].

Dwellings Per Capita

Northern Ireland has the fewest dwellings relative to its population among the four nations, at 43.2 per 100 people, just below England's 44.0. Wales (46.7) and Scotland (49.5) are both better supplied, though all four still fall short of the OECD average of 48.7 ^[1][2].

• Northern Ireland 43.2
• England 44.0
• Wales 46.7
• Scotland 49.5

House Prices

House prices vary far more sharply than housing supply does. As of January 2023, the average home in England cost £285,817, compared with £201,853 in Wales, £175,092 in Scotland, and £162,479 in Northern Ireland ^[3].

• Northern Ireland £162,479
• England £285,817
• Wales £201,853
• Scotland £175,092

Affordability: Price to Earnings

Scotland combines relatively low house prices with the UK's highest median full-time earnings of the four nations (£709 a week in 2023), giving it by far the most affordable price-to-earnings ratio at 4.75x. England, despite not having the lowest dwellings per capita, has both the highest prices and the highest ratio, at 7.97x ^[3][4].

• Northern Ireland 4.89x
• England 7.97x
• Wales 6.10x
• Scotland 4.75x

The pattern suggests undersupply alone doesn't explain the UK's affordability problem. Northern Ireland has a tighter dwellings-per-capita figure than England, yet its housing is far more affordable, because prices and wages there sit much closer together.