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Least Affordable Housing in the UK

The average 2 to 3 bedroom house in West Somerset costs £164,245, yet the average household income in the area for those in their 20s and 30s is just £24,165, giving a house price to income ratio of 6.8 – the highest in Britain.

Even in famously expensive parts of London like Westminster the ratio is o­nly 6.17. Why does this matter? Remember that the value of the mortgage you can get from a typical lender is based o­n a similar multiple of your salary. Few lenders are keen to offer a mortgage whose value is in excess of 3.5 times your earnings. So it will be very difficult to get a mortgage for a property whose price is more than six times what you earn.

The report compares local earnings among households under 40 with the average price in each district for a modest 2- or 3-bedroom family home. This shows that access to home ownership remains most difficult in London, but house price to annual income ratios in the South West are close behind – and appear worse than those across the South East because pay rates are lower and house prices have risen proportionately faster, a problem exacerbated by people moving into the area from the South East, armed with money that came from selling up there, thus boosting south-west prices still further.

The most affordable property in the country based o­n this measure mostly lies in the North of England. Property in Hartlepool costs an average £72,253, with average household income of £25,919, a ratio of just 2.81. In Tony Blair’s constituency, Sedgefield, property is just £58,712, with average income of £29,735, a ratio of just 1.97.

Read more about the Affordability Report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation website at www.jrf.org.uk