One in Nine Cheltenham Homes Sold in 2025 Was Within Reach of a Typical Earner

How many homes sold in Cheltenham each year since 2008 were within reach of a typical full-time earner, from Land Registry sales and official earnings figures.

By Mat Benfield · Published 2026-09-22 · Updated 2026-10-08

Just one in nine homes sold in Cheltenham in 2025 was within reach of a typical full-time earner, double the share at its 2018 low.

Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data and ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.

Line chart of the share of Cheltenham home sales within 4.5 times median full-time pay from 2008 to 2025. It starts at 11.6% in 2008, peaks at 13.8% in 2009, falls to a low of 5.6% in 2018 and recovers to 11.4% in 2025.
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Cheltenham Open Data compared every home sale in Cheltenham since 2008 with the median full-time pay of people who live in the borough. Of the 3,338 homes sold in 2025, 380 (11.4%) sold for £186,296 or less. That is 4.5 times the £41,399 median pay, and roughly the most a lender will usually offer one borrower. The share is back to its 2008 level, but the recovery is almost entirely down to flats. The full year-by-year figures are on the home affordability page.

Key Figures

  • 11.4% of 2025 sales were within 4.5 times median pay, about 1 in 9.
  • 5.6% in 2018, the lowest since the figures begin in 2008, about 1 in 18.
  • 11.6% in 2008, and 13.8% in 2009, the highest.
  • Median pay is up 39% since 2018 (£29,861 to £41,399), while the median sale price is up 17% (£289,000 to £339,000).
  • Since 2008, median pay is up 53% and the median sale price 70%.

By Type of Home

  • Flats: 42.6% of flat sales in 2025 were within reach (303 of 712), up from 20.9% in 2018 and 29.6% in 2008.
  • Terraced homes: 6.5% (54 of 826), up from 2.9% in 2018 but below 10.0% in 2008.
  • Semi-detached homes: 2.2% (22 of 992).
  • Detached homes: 0.1%, a single sale out of 808.

A typical earner buying alone has a realistic choice of flats and very little else. Pay growth since 2018 has outpaced prices, so more homes have come into reach, but the mix has moved towards flats: terraced homes were more affordable in 2008 than they are now.

Notes to Editors

  • Method: The share of residential sales with a price no more than 4.5 times the median gross annual full-time pay of Cheltenham residents in the same year. Sales cover Cheltenham town in the GL50 to GL54 postcodes and exclude the Land Registry’s “other” property type.
  • Sources: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, and the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (residence-based median) via Nomis.
  • Cross-check: The ONS’s own lower-quartile house price to earnings ratio for Cheltenham fell from a peak of 9.8 in 2021 to 7.8 in 2025, pointing the same way.
  • Caveats: The figures assume a single income and take no account of deposits, other debts or mortgage rates. They cover full-time earners only. Earnings are a survey estimate taken in April, so a large move in one year’s figure feeds straight into that year’s price limit. The mix of homes that sell also changes from year to year, so the trend matters more than any single year. Sales can take several months to appear in the Land Registry data, so the latest year’s counts can rise slightly after publication.
  • Data and updates: The page is refreshed monthly and adds each year once it has finished and its earnings figure is published. For questions or interviews, use the contact page.

Data from HM Land Registry Price Paid Data and the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, published under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Last updated 2026-10-02.

Cite This

Please credit Cheltenham Open Data and link to this page. Suggested citation:

Cheltenham Open Data (2026). One in Nine Cheltenham Homes Sold in 2025 Was Within Reach of a Typical Earner. Published 2026-09-22. https://cheltenham-od.uk/news/home-affordability-analysis. Data: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data and ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, published under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

To embed the chart on your own site, copy this code:

<a href="https://cheltenham-od.uk/news/home-affordability-analysis"><img src="https://cheltenham-od.uk/assets/findings/cheltenham-home-affordability.svg" alt="Line chart of the share of Cheltenham home sales within 4.5 times median full-time pay from 2008 to 2025. It starts at 11.6% in 2008, peaks at 13.8% in 2009, falls to a low of 5.6% in 2018 and recovers to 11.4% in 2025." width="640"></a>

The chart and data are free to reuse with credit. The underlying data is published under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it, with a note on this page saying what changed and when.

FAQs

What Does the Affordability Page Show?

  • The share of homes sold in Cheltenham each year since 2008 that were within 4.5 times median full-time pay, for all homes and by property type, as a chart and a table.

Where Does the Data Come From?

  • HM Land Registry Price Paid Data for the sales, and the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings for pay. Both are published under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Does It Allow for a Deposit?

  • No. It uses one typical income and a simple 4.5 times limit, so it is a guide to how much of the market is in reach, not a mortgage calculation.

Why Are Flats so Different from Houses?

  • Flats sell for far less than houses in Cheltenham, so a much larger share of them fall under the price limit, while almost no detached homes do.

Corrections

  • 2026-10-08: Figures refreshed to include 2025 sales registered with HM Land Registry since first publication. Total 2025 sales rose from 3,281 to 3,338 and sales within reach from 374 to 380. The headline share of 11.4% is unchanged, and the median sale price is now £339,000 rather than £340,000.