When will Brexit hit house prices? Where homes are most and least affordable as average prices rise again
07-17-2016
By David Ottewell
New date released by the Department for Communities and Local Government today show that the average hopuse pirce is now almost eight times the average salary
Getty 
The average house price has risen to nearly eight times the average salary - pushing the dream of home ownership out of many people’s reach.
Official data released by the government today showed that, across England, the median house price was 7.6 times higher than the median wage in 2015.
The figures suggest the banking crash did little to reverse the longer-term trend, making it harder and higher for people to buy a home.
As recently as 1997, the average house price was just 3.5 times higher than the average salary.
The data shows huge differences in the affordability of homes across the country.
In some parts of London - including Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham and Camden - the median house price is more than TWENTY times the median wage.
But it isn’t just a problem for London and the Home Counties.
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In Cambridge house prices are 12.8 times higher than salaries, in Oxford 11.6 times higher and in Harrogate in Yorkshire 10.6 times higher.
Traditionally, mortgage lenders were believed to offer a maximum of around three times a person’s salary.
Under the property boom of the 2000s, that rose to as high as six times.
Since then, lenders have tightened the rules again.
They have also moved away from strict salary multiples, to look much more closely at an individual person or family’s incomings and outgoings.
Mary May/ Geograph 
The places where houses are the most affordable tend to be in the north of England and Midlands.
In Copeland in West Cumbria, the average house price is just 2.9 times the average salary.
That makes it the most affordable place in England.
Burnley is next (3.7 times), Barrow-in-Furness third (3.9 times) and Derby fourth (4.0 times).
Blackburn, Hull, Hyndburn, Stoke and County Durham complete the top 10.
The Top 10 areas where houses are least affordable
| Rank | Area | Median house price is X times more than median salary |
| 1 | Kensington and Chelsea | 39.7 |
| 2 | Westminster | 24.2 |
| 3 | Hammersmith and Fulham | 22.3 |
| 4 | Camden | 20.0 |
| 5 | Richmond upon Thames | 18.5 |
| 6 | Wandsworth | 18.2 |
| 7 | South Bucks | 17.0 |
| 8 | City of London | 16.6 |
| 9 | St Albans | 16.6 |
| 10 | Islington | 16.5 |
The Top 10 areas where houses are most affordable
| Rank | Area | Median house price is X times more than median salary |
| 1 | Copeland | 2.9 |
| 2 | Burnley | 3.7 |
| 3 | Barrow-in-Furness | 3.8 |
| 4 | Pendle | 3.9 |
| 5= | Derby | 4.0 |
| 5= | Blackburn with Darwen | 4.0 |
| 7= | Hyndburn | 4.1 |
| 7= | Kingston upon Hull | 4.1 |
| 7= | Stoke-on-Trent | 4.1 |
| 10 | County Durham | 4.4 |
- Source: Department for Communities and Local Government