Young Buyers Get Boost from Improving UK Housing Affordability

  • Surge in wages causes fall in house price to earnings ratio
  • However, the burden of mortgages for UK households rises

Properties advertised in the window of an estate agent in Rochester, UK.

Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg
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Record pay rises and the slide in property prices caused the biggest improvement in UK housing affordability in more than a decade, a glimmer of hope for young buyers who have been priced out by stretched valuations.

Mortgage lender Halifax said that a decline in property values coupled with rocketing wages has improved housing affordability markedly even though prices hit record levels compared to earnings in 2022.