Pay rises – but house prices rise higher

The team at Coulters Property have looked into the housing landscape for first-time buyers to discover how much you would need to be able to afford a 10% deposit around the country, how much this is as a percentage of average annual income, and how this has changed over the last 20 years.

https://www.coultersproperty.co.uk/first-time-buyer-changes

Scotland First Time Buyer Landscape (1999-2020)

	1999	2020	10 YEAR DIFFERENCE (£)	10 YEAR DIFFERENCE (%)
House Price	£49,924	£152,469	£102,545.00	205.40%
Deposit	£4,992	£15,247	£10,255	205.43%
Earnings	£16,914	£30,000*	13,086	77.37%
Deposit % Earnings	29.50%	50.70%		21.20%

*2019 earnings data used

You can clearly see that in Scotland, house prices have risen by 205.40% but earnings have only risen by 77.37%. The deposit as % of earnings has increased by 21.20%.

How Has Housing Affordability Changed in the UK?

• In 1999, the average house price in the UK was just £77,961. Fast forward twenty years and that figure has almost trebled, to £230,735.

• At the same time, the average income has also increased, but only from £17,803 a year to £30,353, an increase of 70%.

• In 1999, a 10% deposit would have worked out at about 43.8% of your annual salary, these days, that figure has risen by about three quarters to 76%.

You can see the full research here.