Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Who can afford a roof over their head?

Fewer than two in every 10 homes for sale in England are affordable for working families on average wages. And in some areas, would-be buyers are priced out completely, even if they can raise a sizeable deposit, according to figures from Shelter that underline the extent of the housing crisis. Rocketing house prices in some regions, combined with stagnant wage growth, have combined to push homes out of the reach of buyers, so much so that in more than half the country fewer than one in 10 of the suitable homes on the market was affordable to families who could put a typical 18% deposit towards their purchase.

In London, rocketing house prices mean that in 14 boroughs there is not a single property that a family on average wages can afford.  Shelter found that in all 32 of the capital's boroughs fewer than 10% of homes were affordable to couples with children. For single buyers, this figure extended to the entire south-east and south-west.

 In Exeter, just over 1% of homes on the market were affordable for the typical family (eight out of 553 for sale); in South Lakeland in the north-west it was only 4% (43 out of 1069 for sale); and in Herefordshire only 3% (46 out of 1,751 for sale).

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