Barely one in ten aspiring first-time buyers can now purchase a home without family assistance, new research from Skipton Group reveals.
The owner of Connells estate agency calculates that only 11.5 per cent of potential homeowners are able to buy in their local area on their own income.
Skipton’s analysis of average incomes and house prices shows Ceredigion in west Wales as the UK’s least affordable region, with fewer than 3 per cent of locals able to afford a typical starter property. Wales dominated the least affordable list, largely because of what Skipton describes as “very low” average earnings rather than soaring property prices.
In London’s Square Mile, the City of London, 3.2 per cent of first-time buyers are able to climb onto the property ladder unassisted, with higher house prices offset somewhat by higher salaries. Meanwhile, the most affordable regions are almost all in Scotland, led by Aberdeen, where about a third of local prospective buyers can purchase unassisted. Manchester is the sole English location to make the top ten, at roughly 23 per cent.
With house values outstripping wages over the past decade, many younger buyers are increasingly dependent on family contributions – the so-called Bank of Mum and Dad. According to Legal & General, parents contributed £9.2 billion last year alone.
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