Can you afford a home in London? Let the new Mayor take note

Often, the London property market feels less like climbing a ladder, and more like hitting your head against a brick wall. You’re going nowhere, and it hurts. London elects its new mayor next week, but will any of the candidates do enough to help housing affordability, or is it time to look for other ways onto the property ladder?

Presently, the price of a London home is skyscraper high in comparison to what most people earn. House prices in 28 of the 33 London boroughs are at least 10 times average salaries, and in Kensington and Chelsea, they average 38 times earnings. Running parallel to this is the fact that most of us can only borrow a maximum of 4.5 times salary for a mortgage. It runs parallel, because there seems to be no crossing point.

Take a look at the breakdown of affordability ratios for each London borough, including the City of London. These are the latest figures available:

Source: DCLG

Unsurprisingly, many people are looking to the more ‘affordable’ outer boroughs of London. These areas are now seeing some of the strongest house price growth, and present the best opportunities for first-time buyers and investors. Barking and Dagenham, Bexley, Tower Hamlets, Croydon, and Havering remain the only London boroughs where the average property is less than 10 times average salary. Under Boris, the tech and hipster takeover of Hackney has become less affordable, faster than any local authority in the UK, with prices rising from 8.6 to 14.7 times average earnings.

Clearly, the solution to housing affordability must be radical – and perhaps it’s time to consider property crowdfunding as one of the answers. Housebuilding needs to double to meet demand, and at Property Partner, we’re already starting to help build more homes by supporting smaller developers. More than this: anyone can access the property market through us, investing as much as they like into institutional grade properties in the most dynamic areas of London’s housing market. It means that investors can track the property market, and ensure that their savings don’t fall behind. We’re also working hard to launch our own home-ownership scheme, to help first-time buyers onto the ladder, so watch this space.

Technology has broken the rules and is levelling the playing field, and we’re working hard to let everyone know of the new opportunities available to them. Whatever the future of the housing market, it’s clear that innovation within this very traditional industry will be key.

We want to improve the future of property investment. Take a look at the properties on our marketplace to see the opportunities available to you, or else – sign up now to start investing: