Rural home prices soar - Leicester
07-06-2014
Figures released by the National Housing Federation (NHF) to mark Rural Housing Week show rural areas have become some of the least affordable places to live in the UK.
On average house prices in rural areas are 11 times the average salary, meaning potential homebuyers working in these areas would need to see wages rise by a staggering 150 per cent to afford a home.
Around half (44 per cent) of the 50 most unaffordable places to live in England outside of London are in rural areas. House prices in these areas are between 13 and 20 times the average salary.
Dubbed as POREs (Priced out of Rural England), workers in rural areas have actually seen wages rise at a slower rate than the rest of England in the last decade, by 21 per cent compared to 24 per cent in the rest of the country.
Adding to housing woes in rural locations, a shortage of the right kind of properties is pushing up prices. Increasingly, families are feeling forced out of their local areas as more buyers seek second homes in desirable countryside areas which are often left empty outside the tourist season putting pressure on local economies.
Whilst the unaffordability crisis in rural areas is forcing young workers and families out, the number of over 65s has risen 2.5 times faster (by 20 per cent) than in towns and cities. Recent figures project that by 2020 around 65 per cent of over 65s (an increase of 24 per cent) in many rural areas will need help with simple domestic tasks like shopping, washing dishes and opening screw tops.
The NHF is warning rural areas will struggle to support the aging population boom unless more affordable homes are built ensuring families and working people can keep communities alive.
David Orr, National Housing Federation chief executive, said: "The traditional picture of the English countryside is fast becoming extinct.
"We know how difficult many under 40s are finding it to afford a home in towns and cities, but it's becoming impossible for people to put down roots in our villages and market towns.
"The unaffordability crisis in rural areas is putting local shops pubs and schools at risk of closure and ageing populations are putting pressure on communities.These worsening problems would be solved if more affordable homes were built. We are not talking about concreting over the countryside.
"It's not ruining the countryside to build 10 high quality, affordable new homes in our villages and 50 in market towns. That's all it would take across the land to end the rural housing crisis and help to solve the country's housing crisis within a generation."
Meanwhile, online estate agent eMoov.co.uk has found out that house buyers in Leicester will work on average at least 1,629 hours before they can put a deposit down on their first home, with buyers in London having to work up to 9,000 hours.
The average hours worked was calculated assuming the average full-time worker is paid for 37.5 hours of work a week and gets 25 days holiday.