Priced out? Leeds homes cost seven times the average local income

The average home in Leeds now costs almost £200,000 '“ seven times higher than the local average income '“ according to a new report published today.
The average home in Leeds now costs almost 200,000  seven times higher than the local average income  according to a new report published today.The average home in Leeds now costs almost 200,000  seven times higher than the local average income  according to a new report published today.
The average home in Leeds now costs almost 200,000 seven times higher than the local average income according to a new report published today.

This means an average full time earner would need a pay rise of two thirds their current salary of £26,972 to afford an average mortgage of £199,192 in the city.

Rents have also risen, the National Housing Federation (NHF) data shows, and now costs an average £709 a month.

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The figures are revealed as the Yorkshire and Humber Home Truths 2017/18 report is launched today at an event in Leeds.

One of the reasons for the growing crisis is down to a large shortfall of new housing, the NHF said. Between 2012 and 2016, 7,674 too few homes were built in the city.

Sharon Squires, the National Housing Federation’s external affairs manager for Yorkshire, said: “It’s worrying that house prices and rents in Yorkshire keeping going up while wages stagnate. The region desperately needs to increase the supply of new homes, for sale and for rent. Most importantly it needs to increase the supply of genuinely affordable housing.”

Executive member for regeneration, transport and planning Coun Richard Lewis said: “While we recognise there is a shortage of new – and particularly affordable – housing in Leeds, we are 100 per cent committed to addressing this issue.

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“Our policies are beginning to have an impact as latest figures show that Leeds are one of only three local authorities in the country to deliver more than 3,000 new homes in 2017.

“However, the Government has simply handed over capacity to build to the private sector. As a council, we would love to be in a position to be able to build more affordable homes ourselves, but we are doing the best we can given that the real problem lies elsewhere.”

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesman said it was taking action to fix the broken housing market.

He said: “Since 2010, more than 78,000 homes have been built across Yorkshire but there is a lot more to do. Through planning reform and targeted investment, we have an ambitious plan to get Britain building.

“We are getting more people on the housing ladder through schemes like Help to Buy and last year saw the highest number of first-time buyers in the UK since 2006.”