Housing market accessibility is now 350% worse than it was in 1996 and first time buyers are using almost half their take home income to service their mortgage, according to the Royal Institute for Chartered Surveyors.
The RICS accessibility index also found that the cost of becoming a homeowner has increased by 8.4% in the year to 20 June 2007. A first time buyer couple on lower quartile earnings of around £26,000 each will need to save around 96% of their take home pay to save up the typical £25,600 of upfront costs needed to buy a home within a year, according to RICS. This compared with a low point of 21% in 1996, when housing was at its most accessible. The research also shows the same couple would need to pay 44% of their joint income to service their monthly payments, up from 38% in the first qu...
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