With Royal Wedding fever gripping the nation, new research by
Emoov.co.uk looked at how the increasing cost of our wedding budget compares to another area of unaffordability, the UK housing market. How does the cost of your big day translate in terms of a bricks and mortar mortgage deposit?
The research shows that our UK big-day spend has dramatically increased, costing an average of £27,161. This is up 88% since 2012. During the same period, at £225,047, the average UK property has risen by 36%.
Therefore, the current wedding spend is 12% of the price of a property, or enough to put down a 12% deposit on a property.
As with property, couples in London predictably pay the most to wed, shelling out £36,155. But with the cost of homeownership in the capital the highest across the UK, this outlay equates to just 8% of the average property price. Of all the London boroughs, the smallest percentage is Kensington and Chelsea where the London wedding budget equates to 3% of the average property price.
• At 19%, the North East is home to the largest wedding spend as a proportion of the average property price.
• While the average wedding spend in Scotland is higher so too is the average house price. As a result, the budget for the big day equates to 17% of a property’s value.
• Yorkshire and Wales are both home to a wedding to property price ratio of 16%.
• Burnley and Blaenau Gwent are home to the highest percentage of property price spent on a wedding. Couples could put down 28% of a property for what they are forking out on their wedding.
Getting married often prompts a property purchase or move, but while escalating property prices are stopping many from climbing the ladder, it seems royal and celebrity weddings are having an influence on the amount we spend on our wedding day.
