Camden named as one of least affordable places to buy property in UK
Only four areas in the UK, all in London, have become less affordable to buy in than Camden - Credit: Archant
Camden workers have to pay 19.6 times their annual earnings to buy a property in the borough, as UK house prices reach peak un-affordability
Employees in Camden hoping to buy a property in the area would have had to pay 19.6 times their annual earnings, according to today’s report from the Office of National Statistics (ONS).
For context, the affordability ratio average across England and Wales currently stands at 7.6 times annual earnings to property purchase.
The report based ratios off of employee earnings rather than resident earnings in order to gauge the house-buying power of employees.
Affordability has worsened fastest in London boroughs over last 20 years, with seven out of 10 of the least affordable local authorities located in the capital.
In Camden in 1999 it would have been 7.7 times annual earnings spent on buying a house, a change in median affordability ratio of 11.93.
The only places where the gap between earnings and house prices have widened even further are Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Hackney.
According to the ONS report house prices increased in 98 per cent of local authority districts between 2015 and 2016, whilst there was no significant change in earnings during the same period, even in there districts where house prices increased.
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The report concluded that, whilst house prices have increased by 258 per cent since 1997, mean individual annual earnings have only risen 68 per cent.
