An average-priced home in London cost the equivalent of almost 35 years of disposable income for a low-earnings household, official figures reveal.
The average house price in the capital was £530,000 in 2022/23, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Its analysis found that this meant that the average house price was not “affordable” for any of the ten income deciles in the capital, even the richest, based on being able to buy it with five years of household disposable income.
For the lowest income decile (£15,257-a-year), it would take 34.7 years of income to be able to afford such a property.
For the median income decile (£37,632) , 14.1 years, and for the highest income decile (£89,901) 5.9 years.
The ONS describes disposable income as the amount of money that households have available for spending and saving after direct taxes, such as income tax, National Insurance and council tax.
It stressed that homes have become less affordable in all areas, meaning an average-priced home is equivalent to more multiples of a 20th percentile income (£22,507 in London) now than in 1999.
London’s affordability ratio has increased the most, more than doubling from 10.9 in 1999 to 24.1 in 2023.
The stark figures highlight the scale of the housing crisis in the capital, with renters also having to pay sky-high rents.
Only the top 10% of households in England by income could afford an average-priced home with fewer than five years of household income last year, according to the ONS.
The average house price was £298,000 in England, £205,000 in Wales, £185,000 in Scotland and £160,000 in Northern Ireland.
In England, the average house price-to-income ratio was 8.6, in Wales it was 5.8 and in Scotland it was 5.6 in the financial year ending in 2023.
An average-priced home in England was around 18.2 times the income of the lowest-income 10% of households last year, compared with 12.3 in Scotland, 11.2 in Wales and 9.3 in Northern Ireland.
Labour MP Chris Curtis, co-chairman of the Labour Growth Group and a member of the Housing Select Committee said: “These figures demonstrate the staggering scale of our country’s housing crisis and underline the urgency of the task facing this Government to end it.”
He added: “We need grow our economy so that rising pay packets mean it’s not just the privileged few who can afford to get on the housing ladder.
“Alongside this we need to be truly radical in reforming the broken planning system and explore innovative solutions to crowd private investment into building more affordable and social housing.”
In Wales, the top 30% of households by income would have been able to afford an average-priced home with five years of household income in the financial year ending in 2023.
In Scotland the figure was 40%, according to the ONS.
The new Labour government has vowed to build 1.5 million new homes over the Parliament to ease the housing crisis.
It is aiming to remove barriers, including through planning permission reforms, but previous governments have repeatedly failed to meet housebuilding goals.
