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Commuting carries with it something of a negative cachet, associated as it is in the popular psyche with seemingly interminable journeys on elderly railway networks. However, the truth behind the sitcom image is rather more complex. True, Britain's public transport is expensive and is probably less efficient than in some other countries. It's equally true that commuting adds time to your working day. On the other hand, commuters can take advantage of the economic opportunities afforded by working in the cities, while enjoying a much more sedate life at home. According to the latest research from Lloyds Bank, moreover, they typically get much better value for their real estate money - at least within the London commuter belt. In this short Nethouseprices piece, we look at the key findings of the study.

What is the Lloyds commuter town study?

Lloyds Bank publishes an annual survey of property prices in towns within commuting distance of the major cities, highlighting the cost differential between living in one of these conurbations and living in one of their dormitory towns. Lloyds uses Land Registry sold prices to collate its index and the average cost of commuting is necessarily factored into the final statistics.

Headline figures

- Homeowners living 60 minutes outside of Central London pay on average 60 per cent, or £480,858, less for their properties than those who opt to live within the capital.
- House prices are £372,555, or 47 per cent, less for those who have a 40 minute commute.
- You would pay £229,328, or 38 per cent, less for your home if you chose to live 20 minutes away from Central London.
- Intriguingly, though, this trend is reversed for commuters travelling into the UK's second and third biggest cities, namely Birmingham and Manchester. Workers here pay a premium to live outside the city.

The detail - London

That the cost of residential property should be cheaper outside of London won't come as a surprise to our readers. Even allowing for sluggish recent growth, the capital boasts the highest house prices in the UK. What is perhaps a little more striking is the sheer size of the price gap between housing in Central London and its dormitory communities. Just to exemplify this startling disparity, Lloyds highlighted the following points:

1. Towns within 20 minutes' commuting distance of London Underground Zones 1&2

Average house price: £497,831.
Difference from average price in Zones 1 & 2: £299,328.
Annual season ticket cost: £2481.
Examples of affected communities: Alexandra Palace, Hanwell, Ilford, New Cross, Tottenham and Wimbledon.

2. Towns within 40 minutes' commuting distance of London Underground Zones 1 & 2

Average house price: £424,903.
Difference from average price in Zones 1 & 2: £372,255.
Annual season ticket cost: £3615.
Examples of affected communities: Bexley, Billericay, Brentwood, Chelmsford, Harlow, Hatfield, Hemel Hempstead, Luton, Orpington, Reading, Rickmansworth, Sidcup, Staines, Stevenage and Woking.

3. Towns within 60 minutes' commuting distance of London Underground Zones 1 & 2

Average house price: £316,300.
Difference from average prices in Zones 1 & 2: £480,858.
Annual season ticket cost: £5169.
Examples of affected communities: Basingstoke, Colchester, Chatham, Crawley, Gravesend, Hanbury, Kettering, Northampton, Oxford, Peterborough, Rochester, Rugby, Sittingbourne, Southend, Swindon, Tunbridge Wells, Wellingborough, Windsor and Wokingham.

4. Most affordable commuter towns

If you are planning to relocate to a commuter town within an hour's journey of Central London, you will, according to Lloyds, find the most affordable housing in the following locations:

Wellingborough, Northamptonshire - Average house price = £197,743.
Kettering, Northamptonshire - Average house price = £206,873.
Peterborough, Cambridgeshire - Average house price = £207,458.
Swindon, Wiltshire - Average house price = £234,466.
Chatham, Kent - Average house price = £234,652.
Rugby, Northamptonshire - Average house price = £237,263.
Northampton - Average house price = £238,306.
Luton, Bedfordshire - Average house price = £250,593.
Sittingbourne, Kent - Average house price = £254,457.
Basildon, Essex - Average house price = £259,176.

5. Least affordable commuter towns

If affordability is one of your central criteria when choosing a new house, you will probably want to avoid the following towns where, unusually, property houses are significantly more expensive than in Central London:

Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire - Average house price = £1,054,215.
Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire - Average house price = £903,142.
Ascot, Berkshire - Average house price = £824,421.
Weybridge, Surrey - Average house price = £822,672.
Wimbledon - Average house price = £807,574.

Birmingham and Manchester

As discussed in previous columns, the housing markets in both Birmingham and Manchester have outperformed Central London's faltering residential sector during the past year so, at an intuitive level, you would be forgiven for expecting the commuter towns serving these great cities to mirror those close to the capital and to host much cheaper homes. Not so, says Lloyds: for reasons that aren't entirely clear, people living within 40 minutes of Birmingham and Manchester quite frequently pay a higher price for a house or flat than their city-based counterparts.

For example:

A) Birmingham - Average house price = £181,758.
Burton-upon-Trent, Coventry and Derby (40 minutes away from Birmingham) - Average house price = £225,353.

B) Manchester - Average house price = £174,992.
Chorley, Macclesfield and Warrington (40 minutes away from Manchester) - Average house price = £216,236.

Annual rail passes for commuters travelling around 40 minutes into Birmingham and Manchester cost on average £2261.

Making firm predictions about house prices in the UK is a notoriously difficult task but, if Birmingham and Manchester continue their current levels of economic growth, we would expect prices in both cities to start exceeding those in their respective dormitory towns. We will, of course, report on next year's report and let you know if there has been any progress in this direction.

Bank of Scotland, part of the Lloyds group, has published a parallel study about the situation north of the border, which the team here at Nethouseprices will analyse in a future article. Visit us again soon for this and for our other services, including our free instant house valuation tool.