Local people are being priced out of their towns, as average wage earners could be looking at saving for more than 100 years to afford an average priced property where they live, online estate agents HouseSimple.com has claimed.
According to figures compiled by the firm, an average wage earner in Brighton (on £23,488 per annum) would need to save for 104.2 years to have a large enough deposit for an average priced property in the area (£350,222). The situation is slightly better in Bristol, but still a difficult situation. An average wage earner on £27,394, would have to save for 55.1 years to afford an average priced property in Bristol (£274,280).
Property prices have increased sharply in Brighton in the last 10 years, largely due to the influx of London commuters who have moved out of the capital for a better quality of life. But this has had a dramatic impact on local property prices.
While Brighton is at one end of the scale, prospects are a little brighter for people living in Hull, where average salaries are £24,248, and average house prices close to a third of the price of average property prices in Brighton, at £123,864. This means that an average wage earner in Hull would only need to save for 6.1 years to have enough for a deposit.
Similarly, in Bradford, with average house prices of just £124,051, and average salaries of £24,743, an average wage earner could have a large enough deposit after seven years, to afford an average priced property in the city.
HouseSimple.com has looked at average salaries and average property prices in 20 major towns and cities across the UK. Inevitably London, features high up on the list. While average salaries in London (£34,720) are higher than in Brighton, so are average property prices (£492,026). An average earner in London would have to save for almost 100 years (97 years) to afford an average priced property in the capital.
The figures have been calculated on the basis that savers could put aside 10% of their salary every year for a house deposit, and that the maximum mortgage loan they could secure would be four-and-a-half times their gross annual salary.
Alex Gosling, CEO of HouseSimple.com, said: “Affordability remains a major problem across the UK. Everyone knows that London is unaffordable for all but the rich or fortunate, but these figures highlight the plight of the average person looking to buy an average priced property in their local town or city.
“The average wage earner is being priced out of their local property market, and without a serious influx of new properties coming onto the market, that’s likely to continue to remain the case.”
