The cheapest places to buy a house in England, from registered sales

Shildon in County Durham has the lowest median sale price of any English town with at least 500 registered sales: £78,500, across 515 sales, against £315,000 for the typical English town. That is not a listing average. It is the price at which the middle house actually changed hands.

For context, HM Land Registry's UK House Price Index for June 2026 put the UK average at £272,000, up 2.0% on the year and 0.1% on the month, with the North West the fastest-rising English region at 4.7%, the North East at 4.3%, and the next Budget set for 28 October 2026.

A town median mixes flats with detached houses, so it answers "where is cheap" and not "where is a semi cheap". These four tables answer the second question. Each takes the tenure the type nearly always has, freehold for houses and leasehold for flats, and keeps only cells with at least 30 registered sales. There is no town floor here, and the sales column is printed so that a thin figure can be read as one.

The cheapest town for a freehold terrace, Shildon, is not the cheapest for a leasehold flat, which is Choppington. The two markets are different places, and a ranking built on the overall median hides that.

30 of the 30 towns in the headline table sit in three ONS regions: 18 in the North East, 10 in the North West and 2 in Yorkshire and the Humber. Nothing from the Midlands or the South qualifies. County Durham alone supplies 9 of the 30.

Browse the regions: North East · North West · Yorkshire and the Humber

Comparing each town's median in 2023 with 2025, the first and last complete years in the register, the median change across the 30 cheapest towns is +8.1%, against +2.2% across all 891 towns and +1.6% across the 30 dearest. The cheap end has been rising faster than the rest, which is what a flat national market with a firm North looks like from the bottom.

Two cautions. Percentages off a low base flatter small moves in pounds, and 2026 is excluded because its sales are still being registered and its median is not yet comparable with a whole year.

Three things the register does not carry. Floor area, so a low median may describe small houses rather than cheap ones. Condition, so a town of unmodernised terraces ranks below a town of refurbished ones with no signal that this is why. And the mix: a town whose sales are mostly two-bed terraces will show a lower median than one selling the same terraces alongside detached houses, even if the terraces cost the same in both.

The cheapest town's own page, Shildon, and its county page, County Durham, carry the full breakdown by type, tenure and year. Buying costs at these prices are small but not zero: check the stamp duty calculator.

HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, standard sales only, through 2026-09-30. This article is market analysis. It is not financial advice.