Prospective homeowners in Fleet and Yateley face the biggest property value increases in the News & Mail’s area, official figures show.
In the run-up to May’s general election, figures from the Land Registry and Office for National Statistics show that Conservative MP James Arbuthnot’s North East Hampshire constituency, which covers Fleet and Yateley, has experienced the biggest hike since the last election in 2010, with the median house price rising from £284,000 in 2010 to £332,500 in 2014.
It means the average cost of a home rose from 7.4 times the average annual wage of workers in the constituency in 2010, to 9.5 times the average annual salary in 2014. That is an increase of 28.8%.
The figures show that property in each of the News & Mail’s Tory-held constituencies was less affordable in 2010 than the average for all English and Welsh constituencies in 2014, which put house prices at 6.7 times the average wage and therefore 4% less affordable than in 2010.
Property buyers in Michael Gove’s Surrey Heath constituency have seen the average house price rise from £250,000 in 2010 to £297,000 in 2014. That means the cost of a home has risen from 7.4 times the average annual wage to 9.1 times as much, making property 24.2% less affordable than it was five years ago.
In Sir Gerald Howarth’s Aldershot constituency, the average house price has risen from £205,000 in 2010 (7.2 times the average annual wage) to £232,000 in 2014 (8.3 times), making it 13.9% less affordable.
Homebuyers in Jeremy Hunt’s South West Surrey constituency, which covers Farnham, have suffered the least under the coalition, with the average house price rising from £320,000 in 2010 to £355,000 in 2014.
This means the cost of property has gone up from 8.8 to 9.4 times the average annual wage, making it 6.7% less affordable.
The average property price in Dr Phillip Lee’s Bracknell constituency, which covers Sandhurst and Crowthorne, has risen from £233,750 (7.5 times wages) in 2010 to £265,000 (8.5 times wages) in 2014.
The national figure, however, hides some huge differences in house price affordability across the country.
House prices in Vauxhall in London have become 71% less affordable since the last general election, with the average price of a house in the area in 2014 costing 16.6 times greater than the constituency’s average wage.
The least affordable area of the country last year was in in Chelsea and Fulham with average house prices at 26.9 times greater than the average wage in the constituency.