Where can I retire to in the UK?

In short: anywhere your retirement pot covers. Delphina holds living costs and average house prices for 360+ UK cities, towns and counties. Using the 4% safe withdrawal rule (25x your annual spend, minus the State Pension), you can compare each location and see where your savings would support retirement. The pot you need, not counting your home, varies less than you might expect: from £485,000 in Northern Ireland to £561,025 in London. Most of the gap between regions comes from house prices.

Based on Delphina's 360-location dataset, the cheapest places to retire in the UK are typically where average house prices are lowest, such as the North East, Wales and Northern Ireland, and Northern Ireland also has the lowest living costs. House prices drive most of the difference, so an area with an affordable average house price plus living costs below the UK average gives the smallest total net worth requirement.

The standard method is to take what you'll spend each year in retirement, subtract the full new State Pension (£12,548 in 2026/27), and multiply the gap by 25 (the 4% safe withdrawal rule). On top of that pot, add the cost of your home unless you own it outright. The exact figure varies widely by location - that's what the table on this page shows for every UK area we track.

It depends where you retire, though less on living costs than you might expect. At the Pensions UK moderate standard for one person, day-to-day costs (not counting rent, mortgage or council tax) range from £31,948 a year in Northern Ireland to £34,989 in London. The bigger difference comes from house prices. Use the search box on this page to see the retirement number for any UK city, town or county.