January is a month for new beginnings – and if you’re planning to buy your first home in 2020, our new tool can show you which parts of Great Britain offer the most employment opportunities across a range of industries.
In the tool you can see typical first-time buyer house prices for each local authority area - helping you work out whether an area is affordable for you.
We used data from the Office for National Statistics to identify the number of business units in each location for 18 key industries.
We matched this up with local population figures to show how many businesses there are per 1,000 people in the area, and therefore how many employment opportunities there might be.
Here are a few pointers from the tool:
Powys is top for agriculture
If you’re looking to work in agriculture, forestry or fishing, you might decide to head to Wales.
Our tool shows that Powys, in central Wales, has 44.4 businesses in this sector per 1,000 residents, and that the average price paid by a first-time buyer is a relatively affordable £120,000.
Eden District in Cumbria has a shade fewer agriculture, forestry or fishing businesses (44.2 per 1,000 people) and the average property price for first-timers is £128,000.
Further down the list, we see that West Devon has 35.2 business per 1,000 inhabitants in this industry, with first-time buyers typically paying £195,000.
The go-tos for manufacturing and construction
South Cambridgeshire is the best option for manufacturing businesses, with 7.8 per 1,000 people and an average first-time buyer price of £270,000.
If you want to build your career in construction, Epping Forest is the top location for that line of work with 20.6 businesses per 1,000 people and a typical property value for first-time buyers of £325,000.
Big money in Westminster
Westminster has the most financial services businesses, with 25.1 per 1,000 people, but its first-time buyer average price of £675,000 restricts its affordability for most.
Specialists in this industry could consider moving to Waverley in Surrey, which has 9.5 businesses per 1,000 people and a £300,000 first-time buyer asking price.
Moving north, Salford has 8.4 financial services business per 1,000 inhabitants with a much lower typical first-time buyer property value of £148,000.
Look (no) further
Harry Foges, our head of content, said: “We understand what being close to work is worth for first-time buyers looking for their first home.
“It could be assumed that first-time buyers who are looking for a home based on employment opportunities should automatically head to one of the major cities. However, our research finds that this might not necessarily be the best approach.
“While the biggest cities will be home to the most businesses for some industries, first-timers will also face stiffer competition for jobs due to the bigger population.
“When you add into the mix increasingly stretched property affordability, especially in London, our research shows how it could pay to look further afield to areas with more affordable homes but that are still rich in opportunity within a particular industry.”
