If you want to buy your first house, you’d better start by asking your boss for a payrise.
Because on average, you’ll need to earn £41,000 a year to afford one.
And it gets worse if you live in London, according to the study by KPMG. First-time buyers there will need to earn £77,000 - £50,000 more than the city’s average wage.
Not exactly the average wage
£77,000
London
£41,000
UK
KPMG
Jan Crosby, KPMG’s head of housing, said: “These figures make for frightening reading and show that housing affordability is no longer just a problem for lower wage earners.”
It’s not quite as scary as it sounds. Yes, we do have a housing crisis - .
But there are some ways to get ahead of the game.
The KPMG study assumes we’re buying on our own. In fact, many of us will be buying with a partner. So that £41,000 could be made up of TWO people each earning £20,500 a year.
If you don’t have a partner, think about buying with a friend or family member. .
The researchers imagine us putting down a 10% deposit and borrowing at 4.5 times our income. We can’t change the amount the bank will lend to us, but we can try to find a larger deposit.
We’ve got and .
KPMG took the average house price for first-time buyers - that’s £202,765 across the UK and £384,856 in London. You may find you can snap up a cheaper house .
Although you might need a banker’s wage in London, the study found you only have to earn £21,219 a year in Northern Ireland to make it onto the housing ladder. Other affordable areas include Wales, the North and Scotland.