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First-Time Buyers Need To Earn More Than £93,000 - Evening Standard

First-time buyers in London will need a salary of more than £93,000 a year to purchase an average-priced property, a study has revealed.

National Housing Federation research shows the average price in the capital is £362,810. For a first-time buyer to get a 90 per cent mortgage on the basis of it being 3.5 times their salary, the wage required is £93,294. The average income in London is £26,156.

Belinda Porich, head of the London region at the organisation, said: "Even by London standards, these are astronomical prices. Many people can only dream of owning a home."

In boroughs where prices are near the London average, such as Barnet, Haringey, Kingston and Merton, real salaries are about a third or a quarter of what is needed to raise a mortgage.

Even in the cheapest borough, Barking and Dagenham, the salary needed to buy the average-priced home for £197,630 is more than twice the average wage of £23,332. The figures also show 353,130 households on housing waiting lists last year, the equivalent of one in nine London families, six per cent up on 2007.