New figures have shown the UK’s least attainable addresses with the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham declining in affordability over the last decade with house prices more than doubling to £380,000 and wages only rising by £2,182.
Another London Borough, Hillingdon, ranked second in the study, conducted by the ONS and analysed by Getamover.co.uk. Since 2013 the average house price in the area has risen by £230,000 and the median salary only increased by £143.
Other areas of the nation where house prices have soared include Nottingham, Gedling and Slough. Two other London Boroughs have been named in the study – showing a growing trend of unaffordability in the capital.
Waltham Forest is the third London borough to feature in the study of the top English areas where homeownership is becoming increasingly unaffordable. Since 2013, the average house prices to income ratio has soared by 70.76%, securing it third place in the ranking. Despite house prices more than doubling to £520,000 over the last decade, the median annual earnings of residents have gone up by £6,194.
Redbridge is the final London area to be named among England’s areas where the affordability of buying a home has fallen the most. In 2013, the house price to annual income ratio sat at 8.65 in the region, rising by 68.55% to 14.58 in 2023. During these years, the average house price has skyrocketed by £236,500 to reach £506,500, while residents in the area have only enjoyed a rise in median earnings of £3,530.
Data has been recorded on the ratio of median house prices to median annual earnings in each English local authority between 2013 and 2023. Data was gathered on the local authorities with the highest increase in house price-to-earnings ratio over the last decade to reveal the spots where homeownership affordability has fallen the most.
England’s average house price has risen by £103,000 over the last decade, with the average annual wage also rising by £7,734. House prices rose at a faster rate than earnings, with the ratio increasing by 21.73%, meaning the average home costs over eight times the average yearly earnings. While London remains the most unaffordable region to buy a home with a ratio of 11.95, the East Midlands has seen the largest decline in homeownership affordability over the decade with the house price to income ratio rising by 35.58% to 7.43. The North East is the only region of England where wages have increased at a faster rate than house prices. The average cost of a home has risen by £33,000 while annual wages have risen by £7,087, making it more affordable to buy a home in 2023 than 2013.
Oadby and Wigston is the area outside of London where homeownership affordability has decreased the most, ranking fifth in the overall study. The house-to-price-to-income ratio has risen by 67.90% over the last decade, with the average house price increasing by £129,000 and the median annual income growing by £2,644.
The city of Nottingham has also been named as one of England’s worst areas for declining homeownership affordability. Despite the average price of an existing dwelling sitting at a lower £95,500 in 2013, the price has rocketed to £186,000 as of September 2023. Over the same period, the median annual income has increased from £25,217 to £30,151. The average house price was 3.79 times the median income in 2013 and has now almost doubled to 6.17 times the median earnings, representing a rise of 62.80%.
