London house prices: Property prices in Hackney are 17 times the average wage
How do your local house prices compare with your salary? Unpleasantly? The residents of one London borough are particularly badly affected, new research has shown – and it’s not one of the obvious ones.
Yes, it is the trendy borough of Hackney which has the dubious accolade of being the part of the UK with the highest house price to salary ratio: with homes costing £575,511, compared with an average salary of £33,800, house prices in the borough are more than 17 times locals’ salaries. Lest we forget, Bank of England rules limit borrowing to 4.5 times salary.
The research, by Emoov, found nine of the 10 UK areas with the highest house price to salary ratios are in the capital. Brent took second place, with homes costing 16.4 times locals’ salaries, while Haringey came third, at 16.2 times.
The only non-London region in the top 10 was Purbeck, the area around Swanage in Devon, where homes cost 14 times locals’ salaries, putting it at number eight in the ranking.
At the other end of the scale was Burnley, where the average home costs just 3.4 times locals’ salaries. That was followed by East Ayrshire, at 3.7 times, and Inverclyde, at 3.7 times.
Read more: Nearly half of prime London property is now selling for below asking price
The UK’s 10 worst house price to salary ratios
Location
Average Wage
Average House Price
House Price/Wage
1
Hackney
£33,800
£575,511
17.03
2
Brent
£28,800
£471,368
16.37
3
Haringey
£34,700
£562,564
16.21
4
Waltham Forest
£27,200
£426,808
15.69
5
Ealing
£32,700
£482,969
14.77
6
Harrow
£32,600
£480,348
14.73
7
Barnet
£38,200
£541,643
14.18
8
Purbeck
£23,800
£335,950
14.12
9
Ham & Fulham
£54,900
£771,882
14.06
10
Newham
£24,600
£339,746
13.81
The good news, for those still looking to climb the first rung on the ladder, is house price growth in the capital has slowed considerably.
According to figures published by Hometrack last month, the capital is now one of the UK’s bottom five cities for house price growth. In March, property prices edged up just 4.9 per cent, the figures suggested. Which may give savers some time to catch up…
Read more: Annual house price growth is at its slowest rate in nearly four years