As home affordability in the UK is hitting a nine-year low, Oxford’s homes cost more than ten times the average local income.
Ratings of affordability, which aim to compare the costs of buying a home in a specific area with its average pay, found out that the cost of homeownership in five cities is now more than ten times the average regional income. This is due to a rapid increase in house price growth combined with a slowdown in wage growth.
In its annual analysis, Lloyds once again named Oxford as the least affordable city in the UK. The city’s average house price of £385,372 is now exactly 10.7 times the average annual wage of £36,033.
The UK’s most affordable city is Stirling in Scotland with an average house price of £173,847, equalling 3.7 times the average regional salary.
Lloyds first started its annual analysis in 2004 and has since revealed that the affordability crisis incorporates a major part of England’s south, as this statistic by The Guardian reflects.
Across Britain as a whole, the average house price has increased by 32% over the last five years, from £169,966 in 2012 to £224,926 in 2017. Average annual city earnings, however, have not kept pace as they have only seen an increase of 7% over the same period of time.
Over the past decade, the fastest growers were the St Albans in Hertfordshire, with price gains of 65% compared to an national average of 21%, Winchester at 59%, Chelmsford at 54%, Brighton & Hove at 46% and Cambridge also at 46%.
