Guildford is the least affordable town in the country

Against a backdrop of falling property prices across the country for the last few years, where areas especially in the North East and Wales have been particularly badly affected by the recession, two regions have always done well.

In fact, such has been the resilience of both London and the south, that they are often given credit when the UK property market posts favourable results in terms of the fluctuating cost of buying a house.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported earlier this week that the annual market for properties for sale had seen an increase in prices of around 2.3 per cent across the country as a whole. It said that this was down in part to the market in places like Surrey in the South East, where values were up 2.2 per cent year on year.

And now it has been revealed that the town of Guildford is performing better than almost all others against a background of economic issues. The county town of Surrey, it has been reported that Guildford topped a poll to find the least affordable towns in the country.

House prices in Guildford since the recession have been so strong, that a survey from AdZuna discovered that three out of four of the homes which are situated in the town are completely inaccessible in terms of cost for most people who live there.

Average house prices now reaching £480,000 have pushed Guildford to the top of the list alongside such cities as Oxford and Cambridge, and the average home will now cost seven times what a couple will earn on a yearly basis.

Adzuna co-founder Andrew Hunter said: "It's fascinating to get such a clear view of the differences in home affordability across the UK from combining data from our property and jobs search engines."

First-time buyers are instead heading to the North East, where houses are far more affordable than they are anywhere else in the country.