Affordability of homes hits high

The affordability of housing is at a seven-year high, new figures suggest.

Property website Zoopla.co.uk said 58% of UK properties are currently affordable for someone with average local earnings, based on them spending up to a third of their pay on their mortgage.

This compares with affordability levels of just 34% when property prices peaked in 2007.

Slight increases in earnings and falling mortgage rates helped offset the price rises seen last year, to leave affordability at its highest level since 2003.

Affordability levels vary greatly across the country, with homes typically more affordable in the north than in the south, despite the higher income levels of people working in the south.

Bradford is the UK's most affordable city, with local workers able to buy 82% of homes in the area, followed by Hull at 81%, Stoke-on-Trent at 80% and Birmingham and Coventry, both at 78%.

Housing in London is the least affordable in the country, with only 32% of people on local salaries able to afford to buy there.

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