This is how long first-time buyers need to save in Portsmouth

For anyone trying to get on the property ladder, the question always comes up: how long is this actually going to take? A new study suggests the answer depends massively on where you live, and in some places, it’s a lot quicker than you might think.

Research from Mortgage Lane looked at incomes, house prices and day-to-day living costs across the UK to work out how long it takes the average person to save for a 25% deposit. The results paint a pretty clear picture: in some cities, homeownership is still within reach, while in others, it can feel miles away.

Portsmouth is one of the UK’s slower cities when it comes to saving for a house deposit, coming in 45th overall in the rankings.

For anyone trying to get on the property ladder, Portsmouth starts to feel more of a stretch. The study shows it takes around 4.75 years on average to save for a 25% deposit, which is well above the quicker cities where it can be done in just a couple of years.

What drives that is mainly the cost of housing. House prices in Portsmouth are higher than many of the more affordable UK cities, which pushes the deposit target up quite a bit from the start.

On top of that, day-to-day costs also take a bigger bite out of people’s income compared to cheaper areas. That leaves less room at the end of the month to consistently build up savings.

Wages do help to a point, but they don’t fully keep pace with the cost of buying locally, which is why saving times start to stretch out.

Compared with cities higher up the list, Portsmouth sits in a very different position. Instead of feeling like a short-term goal, saving for a deposit here is more of a medium-term plan that takes steady, long-term commitment.

Looking at the top 10 as a whole, a clear pattern starts to come through. Cities like Aberdeen, Kingston upon Hull and Dundee lead the way because they strike that sweet spot between lower house prices and decent earnings, which keeps deposit targets manageable. Places such as Sunderland, Preston and Doncaster show a slightly different mix, where cheaper day-to-day living costs help people save faster even if wages aren’t as high. Meanwhile, cities like Derby, Liverpool, Perth and Coventry sit just behind, with stronger salaries helping to balance out higher property prices. Across all ten, though, the common thread is that none of them have the kind of runaway house prices seen in the south, which is what really keeps saving times down to just a couple of years rather than most of a decade.

Years to save for a house deposit:

1 Aberdeen 1.31

2 Kingston upon Hull 1.54

3 Dundee 1.61

4 Sunderland 1.89

5 Preston 2.00

6 Doncaster 2.11

7 Derby 2.15

8 Liverpool 2.15

9 Perth 2.30

10 Coventry 2.32

11 Bradford 2.33

12 Wrexham 2.34

13 Stirling 2.44

14 Glasgow 2.49

15 Wakefield 2.51

16 Lancaster 2.51

17 Swansea 2.56

18 Lincoln 2.58

19 Wolverhampton 2.74

20 Newport 2.86

21 Sheffield 2.87

22 Peterborough 2.95

23 Nottingham 3.01

24 Birmingham 3.01

25 Worcester 3.08

26 Newcastle upon Tyne 3.11

27 Southampton 3.15

28 Armagh 3.22

29 Plymouth 3.31

30 Salford 3.40

31 Leeds 3.45

32 Hereford 3.48

33 Manchester 3.49

34 Newry 3.52

35 Leicester 3.58

36 Norwich 3.64

37 Cardiff 3.87

38 Gloucester 3.90

39 York 3.98

40 Edinburgh 4.01

41 Colchester 4.18

42 Belfast 4.22

43 Milton Keynes 4.43

44 Stoke on Trent 4.59

45 Portsmouth 4.75

46 Southend on Sea 5.17

47 Chelmsford 5.37

48 Bristol 5.84

49 Exeter 6.32

50 Canterbury 6.88