How UK house prices left the middle class behind

In England, only the cheapest 10% of houses are now affordable to middle-income buyers. Photograph: Richard Newstead/Getty Images

That buying a property – any property – in the UK is increasingly the preserve of the rich will come as no surprise to low-income households.

But official data shows that the middle classes are increasingly squeezed, with only the cheapest 10% of houses now affordable (no more than five times a household’s income according to the Office for National Statistics) to middle-income England.