More towns affordable for first-time buyers
Monday, 8 August 2011 2:10 PM
The number of towns with affordable options for first-time buyers has reached its highest level for eight years, claimed new research out today.
According to the Halifax First-Time Buyer Review, the average house price paid by a first-time buyer in June would have been affordable to someone on average earnings in 48 per cent of all local authority districts.
This is the highest proportion of affordable housing for first-time buyers since 2003 and compares with 40 per cent in 2010 and just six per cent in 2007.
Halifax makes its calculation by assuming an area is affordable if the average house price for a first-time buyer is lower than the price someone on average earnings in the area can pay.
Suren Thiru, housing economist at Halifax, said: "It is encouraging that housing affordability for first-time buyers in general has improved significantly over recent years, as a consequence of the marked falls in both house prices and interest rates since 2007.
“However, there is a distinct North-South divide within this improvement as the majority of affordable areas are in the North."
The review found that 80 per cent of all local authority areas in the North are affordable for first-time buyers: ten times the proportion of affordable areas in the South, where the level was just eight per cent. The North-East was the only region where all towns were classed as being affordable to first-time buyers while not a single area in London passed the test.
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