Average house price compared with resident median annual pay.
Exeter Wages, Employment and Property Affordability
Resident earnings, employment, unemployment and affordability context for reading Exeter prices and rents.
Jan 2025-Dec 2025 / ASHE 2025
Exeter wages, employment and affordability
Resident earnings and labour-market context help explain local affordability, rental pressure and housing demand.
Resident population
138,399
ONS 2024
Median resident annual pay
£35,235
Exeter
Median resident weekly pay
£678
Full-time employees
Employment rate
83.9%
Aged 16-64
Unemployment rate
2.9%
Economically active
Average monthly rent compared with estimated monthly earnings.
Labour market rates are from the ONS Annual Population Survey profile shown by Nomis. Where the local APS unemployment value is suppressed, the ONS model-based unemployment estimate is used. Earnings are ONS ASHE resident-analysis median full-time employee earnings. Annual pay is annualised from weekly pay for display context.
Incomes Explain Affordability Pressure
Wage and employment data does not predict house prices by itself. It gives demand-side context: how average prices and rents compare with resident earnings, whether employment conditions support demand, and where affordability pressure may limit the buyer or renter pool.
Exeter’s latest ONS/Nomis labour market profile shows a strong local employment picture, set against a relatively large resident base of 138,399 people in 2024. That population context matters, because it gives a sense of the scale of the local workforce and the number of households drawing on city wages when thinking about day-to-day affordability.