Housing affordability holds steady for Pompey buyers

Housing affordability in Portsmouth remained unchanged over the last year, new figures show.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show fulltime employees in Portsmouth could expect to spend

7.4 times their annual earnings on purchasing a home in 2023 – close to the ratio of 7.3 times the year before.

The Institute for Public Policy Research said the housing crisis is not only damaging lives but also holding the economy back and called for an increased investment in genuinely affordable homes.

Last year in England, a house cost 8.3 times the average wage, while the ratio stood at 6.1 in Wales – both slightly down from 8.5 and 6.4 respectively.

While this was the second consecutive fall since 2021, these are still higher than before the pandemic in 2019.

Maya Singer Hobbs, senior research fellow at the IPPR, said: “The housing affordability crisis is damaging lives and holding back the economy. Its root cause is the failure to build enough homes across the country over several decades, including the failure to build enough genuinely affordable homes.”

Overall, housing affordability improved in threequarters of local authorities across England and Wales in 2023, worsened in just under a quarter and remained the same in 1%.

In England, the average home sold for £290,000 in the 12 months to September, while the average fulltime wage was £35,100. Houses in Portsmouth were 4% more expensive in 2023 than the year before, at an average price of £260,000. In the meantime, wages saw a 3.2% year-toyear increase.