Region more affordable to homebuyers than when credit crunch hit
SWATHES OF Yorkshire are more affordable to homebuyers than they were a decade ago, new research to mark the tenth anniversary of the credit crunch has shown.
But across the UK, housing affordability has become even more polarised since the financial crisis, with the gap between the least and most affordable parts of the country doubling since the crash.
Yorkshire Building Society compared local house prices and incomes, and found that in almost all of Yorkshire, housing is more affordable than it was in 2007 – however, researchers say this is because house prices haven’t fully got back to where they were in 2007 at the previous market peak.
Just York, Craven and the East Riding are less affordable than they were a decade ago.
Richmondshire has seen the biggest rise in affordability, up 26 per cent. There, the average house is now £191,829.64 compared to £201,692.83 in 2007. Bradford is 22 per cent more affordable, Leeds is 15 per cent more affordable than it was in 2007, while Harrogate is six per cent more affordable than ten years ago.
Yorkshire Building Society’s chief economist Andrew McPhillips said: “As a whole, Yorkshire is 14 per cent more affordable than it was ten years ago.”
“If you look at the areas that have improved, it’s good in a sense that wages have increased quicker than property prices.
“In some areas, property prices are still below what they were, but in other areas property prices have continued to increase, just not at the speed of earnings.
“However, in York for example, there are other factors to take into account.
“It is the city where affordability has reduced the most. It is still very desirable and there is a lack of supply.”
The report shows that elsewhere in the country many areas are still unaffordable to first-time buyers, with the average price of a home now more than 20 times the average wage in some parts of London.
There were also major differences in affordability across Britain, with affordability in some local authorities worsening by 61 per cent (The Three Rivers council area in Hertfordshire) while improving in others by up to 42 per cent (Inverclyde in Scotland).
In all, 54 per cent of local authority areas in England, Scotland and Wales are now more affordable than they were in 2007
Mr McPhillips added: “Unsurprisingly, the data shows that there is a distinct divide between the north and south of the country when it comes to housing affordability, but this has become even more pronounced since the financial crash.”