Ex-pit town 'has cheapest homes'

A street in West Yorkshire has been named as the cheapest place to buy a house in England and Wales.

The average house price in Oxford Street in the former coal mining town of South Elmsall is £25,600, according a property website.

Tower Green in the St Hilda's area of Middlesbrough, which is being demolished, came in second place, with the average home worth £27,400.

In third place is Warwick Street, South Bank, Middlesbrough, at £28,000.

Mouseprice.com based its research on Land Registry house prices.

North-South divide

However, it stressed that properties in some streets may not have been sold in normal free market conditions, instead being bought under right to buy schemes or compulsory purchase orders.

All of the top 20 cheapest streets in England and Wales were in northern regions, with nine streets in the North East, seven in the North West and four in Yorkshire and the Humber.

Seven streets in the list had average house prices of less than £30,000, with Howsin Street in Burnley the only road in the top 20 to break through the £35,000 barrier, with the average home there costing £35,100.

Homes in the cheapest street in London cost nearly four times more than ones in the least expensive street in England and Wales overall.

Leamington Close in Havering, in east London, has the most affordable homes in London at an average of £97,800.