For decades, the graduate playbook was predictable: move to London, share a house in Zone 3, save furiously, and eventually buy a one-bedroom flat somewhere on the Overground line. That script is being torn up. New analysis of the UK's most vibrant first-time buyer markets shows that cities such as Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and Newcastle have overtaken London as the destinations where young professionals can realistically combine career opportunity with a credible path to homeownership. The shift is not a passing trend - it reflects a structural repricing of where opportunity and affordability intersect in Britain's housing market.