It may not seem like it, but St Albans is one of the best places in the UK to be a first-time-buyer.

While high property prices may make our local authority area unaffordable to many, the average paid by a first-time buyer versus the rest of the market presents one of the best discounts in Britain.

Barrows and Forrester used UK House Price Index data to analyse the average price paid by first-time buyers and compare it to the rest of the market to see which areas offered the best discount, with Elmbridge in Surrey coming out on top with a saving of -43.8 per cent.

In fact, all of the top 10 locations were in Surrey and Scotland, with Herts' Three Rivers in 11th (-38 per cent) and St Albans in 17th (-37.1 per cent).

The St Albans average first-time buyer home came in at £443,830 (as of August 2021 data), while the average for the rest of the market stood at a hefty £705,614.

Across Britain, the respective averages were £220,460 and £309,462, a discount of -28.8 per cent.

The smallest first-time buyer discounts were in the Tower Hamlets and Newham areas of London (-5.7 per cent and -5.4 per cent respectively), while in the City of London, first-time buyers spent an average of 4.3 per cent more, the only area of Britain where it costs more to buy your first home.

James Forrester, managing director of Barrows and Forrester, said: "First-time buyers continue to pay less although this is, of course, influenced by the fact they generally purchase smaller homes to begin with compared to second and third rung buyers.

"Rather than a string of half baked schemes designed to ‘help’ first-time buyers by further fuelling demand, we would love to see the government actually address the issue of supply and build more affordable homes to satisfy our unwavering appetite for home ownership.”