Renters face affordability block to buying a home

The estimates come from analysis of data from the Skipton Group, the Bank of England and the Office for National Statistics. It measured people’s financial ability to buy and then run a home in England, Wales and Scotland.

They took into account the average-priced first-time buyer home in different areas.

The figures suggested it was easiest for first-time buyers to get a property in Scotland where house prices were lower, and the East of England because of higher wages.

It was hardest for those in the West Midlands and Wales owing to a combination of low savings and moderate property prices, and London because of high house prices.

High rent and energy prices have made saving for a deposit increasingly difficult for tenants whatever their income. For potential first-time buyer households in the bottom 25% of earners (those earning less than £22,850 a year), less than 1% could get on to the property ladder in their area, the report said.

Among renters in the top 25% of earners, with an income of more than £71,250 a year, only 44% could afford to buy a first home.

“For some, our findings paint a bleak picture, notably for first-time buyers,” said Skipton chief executive Stuart Haire.

Separate estimates from First Direct, part of HSBC, said that a third of private-sector tenants who had recently experienced a rent increase were too financially squeezed to be able to put anything away in savings.