Housing in London now classed as unaffordable at every income level
London housing has been officially classed as unaffordable for every income decile in a ‘pretty grim’ picture of the housing market.
New data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that the average English home costs 7.9 times the average salary.
If you live in London, conditions are far worse: Someone earning an average income faces a whopping affordability ratio of 13.5.
The highest 10 per cent of earners – roughly classed as those who earn over £90,000 a year – face a house-price-to-income ratio of 5.8, while the lowest 10 per cent face a ratio of just over 34.
Housing is classed as ‘affordable’ by the ONS if the house costs a maximum of five times your salary.
Why is London housing so expensive?
A combination of factors have pushed London houses past the brink of what Brits can afford: A lack of building combined with population growth has constrained supply, while ballooning land values due to intense competition have pushed prices up across the board.
A shift to first-time buyers looking outside the capital for their homes has put pressure on prices, but they’re still remarkably resilient.
Annual house price inflation across the UK has been lowest in London, yes, but prices still rose 0.7 per cent in the 12 months to July 2025.
House prices are still rising due to a combination of gifts and loans from the Bank of Mum and Dad – which totalled £9.4bn in 2023 and has nearly doubled in the last five years – as well as lower interest rates and longer-term mortgages.
London is also a global city: Housing across the market still draws in foreign investment, inflating prices beyond what the rest of Britain can expect to see.
‘Land of the unaffordable’
“England is officially the land of the unaffordable,” Katy Eatenton, Mortgage & Protection Specialist at St Albans-based Lifetime Wealth Management, said.
“Lenders have been proactive in finding new ways to solve the affordability crisis in 2025 but the reality is that house prices are still extremely high relative to incomes, and often just too high.”
Eamonn Prendergast, Chartered Financial Adviser at Palantir Financial Planning, added: Housing remains fundamentally unaffordable across much of the UK.
“In practice, that means deposits are out of reach for many, mortgage costs remain heavy, and London is in a different world altogether, where even high earners struggle.”