You now need to earn £40k to even think about buying a house in Yorkshire

FAMILIES need to earn close to £40,000-a-year to be able to afford a typical mortgage in Yorkshire, according to a new report which warns the region is facing an acute housing crisis.
According to today's report, the housing crisis in the region is 'wide and varied'According to today's report, the housing crisis in the region is 'wide and varied'
According to today's report, the housing crisis in the region is 'wide and varied'

The National Housing Federation says the region’s average worker without a home would need a 62 per cent pay rise or an extra £14,500 a year to have of a chance of getting onto the property ladder.

And it says that “fragmented housing markets are failing to match the economic aspirations of the region”, with the cost of renting or buying a home becoming further out of reach for too many.

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According to today’s report, the housing crisis in the region “is wide and varied”. In some areas a chronic shortage of homes has seen housing costs spiral out of reach of many families, while in other parts of Yorkshire communities are struggling in need of jobs and regeneration, it says. The new report, Home Truths 2015/16, also reveals the most unaffordable and affordable places to buy a home.

Although house prices in Yorkshire are lower than the national average, the average price in the region is still more than seven times higher than mean annual earnings, based on figures from last year. In some parts of North Yorkshire properties average around a quarter of a million pounds, more than ten times the average salary in these areas.

In Harrogate the average house price is £276,744 which is said to be 11 times more than average earnings of £24,731. In Hambleton the average property costs £243,009 which is ten times more than average earnings of £22,948.

The report says that in Ryedale the average house price was £219,929 which was almost ten times higher than the average earnings of £22,173.

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York and Craven were also named among the most expensive places in the region to buy a house. At the other end of the scale the average house price in North Lincolnshire, Hull, Barnsley, Doncaster and North East Lincolnshire were between five and six times higher than average earnings.

In Hull the average house price was said to be just over £100,000. The report also says “nowhere near enough homes” are being built or being brought back into use across the region to keep up with demand. Last year it said 11,040 too few homes were built. And it warns the problem will get worse with predictions that 342,000 new households will form in the region by 2037.

Jo Allen, external affairs manager for the federation in Yorkshire, said: “The country is in the midst of a housing crisis that has been a generation in the making and Yorkshire and the Humber has certainly not been immune to this.

“We are seeing divided markets in the region, with strong confident cities needing a housing offer which matches their growth ambition. In some places people are completely priced out of their local communities. In others we see areas which need employment opportunities and investment in empty homes.”

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