First homes in Hackney cost 12 times average salary of buyers
First time buyers in Hackney will need to earn 12 times the average local salary to get a foot on the ladder - Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
Hackney is the second least affordable place in the UK to buy a first home.
The average price of a first time buyer property in the borough is £474,518 – 12 times the average annual income for people living in the area, Halifax found.
A report from the English Housing Survey published last week found an increase in age for people buying their first home from 30 to 33 over the past 20 years.
The Housing Survey also noted a significant increase in the number of first time buyer households that were couples from 63pc in 1994/95 to 80pc in 2014/15. It suggested this was due to affordability issues and “an increasing need for two incomes to be able to buy”.
Cllr Philip Glanville said: “Halifax is identifying one part of the housing crisis. In Hackney we’re looking at all of it. It’s a problem that we’re really focused on tackling.
“We’re campaigning on private rents – we don’t have the power to stabilise rents but it’s something we’ve been asking for consistently; we’re building 500 shared ownership units ourselves and we’re working with other providers too; and we’re looking at innovative options like Sadiq Khan’s ‘London Living Rent’. We’re opposed to schemes like affordable rent and starter homes.
“Hackney has been in the top five local authorities in the country for delivery of new homes. If the whole country had been building at the same rate as Hackney we wouldn’t have a housing crisis.”
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Neil Wilson, sales manager of Stirling Ackroyd, Hackney, said: “We don’t see many first time buyers now. If you’re saving to buy, the prices seem to get away from you every year.
“The new homes market seems a bit more affordable for first time buyers now. They’ve ended up doing a lot of Help to Buy in these new developments.”
