The average first-time buyer deposit in London has reached unprecedented highs, according to research.
Those looking to get on the property ladder will have to fork out an average of £125,000 in order to do so, more than five times what it was just 30 years ago.
It comes as new figures show housing affordability has fallen to the lowest level in 150 years.
House prices now stand at more than nine times the average salary, a ratio not seen since 1876, according to a report from the asset manager Schroders. In London, homes now cost 12 times earnings.
The last time would-be buyers faced such hurdles to buy a home was in Victorian times, the report said.
Duncan Lamont, who authored the research paper, said that house prices relative to earnings had more than doubled since the 1990s. “Affordability has deteriorated dramatically for first-time buyers,” he said. “This has contributed to home ownership rates falling to levels last seen in the early 1980s.”
Meanwhile, the average five-year fixed-rate mortgage is now 5.05pc, while the typical two-year rate costs 5.33pc, according to the analyst Moneyfacts.
The cost of borrowing has more than doubled since this time last year, when the average two-year fixed-rate mortgage deal was 2.44pc.
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