First time buyers will need a £63,000 salary to afford an average home by 2020, a homeless charity has warned.
Shelter says this is more than 20 per cent more than the £51,000 needed for a typical first time buyer’s mortgage today.
On top of this they would need a deposit of £51,000 to keep up with rocketing house prices in the eastern region.
Campbell Robb, Shelter’s chief executive, said: “When house prices are increasing five times faster than the average wage, it’s no wonder people on ordinary incomes are being locked out of a home of their own.
“With the situation only set to get worse, generation rent will be forced to resign themselves to a life in expensive, unstable private renting, and wave goodbye to their dreams of a home to put down roots.
“It doesn’t have to be like this. The Government has the power to turn our housing crisis around, but only if they stop with schemes like starter homes which only help higher earners, and start investing in homes that people on ordinary incomes can actually afford to live in.”
He added that the figures come as no surprise given that, over the last five years, the region’s severe housing shortage has seen house prices rise five times faster than wages.
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