Interpretation

A threshold of five years of earnings is used as a broad indicator of affordability.

Housing affordability estimates are calculated by dividing house sales prices for an area by average earnings to create a ratio. This ratio allows comparisons between areas and over time without needing to adjust for inflation. A higher housing affordability ratio reflects a less affordable area.

Earnings data are from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), which provides a snapshot of earnings at April in each year. Earnings relate to gross full-time individual earnings for people who live in the area, though they may work elsewhere. A snapshot of the annual earnings of all full-time employees is used, or an annualised version of the weekly estimate where annual data are not available.

House price statistics are from house prices for small areas, which report the median price paid for residential property and refer to a 12 month period with April in the middle (year ending September).

The House price statistics for small areas (HPSSA) data used here are not mix adjusted, so price variations may be a combination of true price changes and differences in the mix of housing types and trends. They will therefore differ from those in the Private rent and house prices, UK bulletins, which are mix adjusted and comparable over time.

These affordability ratio statistics are revised annually to reflect revisions to the house price statistics and earnings data.

Please refer to the Housing affordability in England and Wales bulletin for further information. This bulletin includes analysis of workplace‑based earnings affordability for all dwellings, which is used in England within the updated standard method for assessing local housing need.

Get the data

You can download this dataset in an XLSX, CSV or CSVW format, or download all available datasets in an XLSX or JSON-Stat format.

The original source data for this indicator can be found on the following page: Office for National Statistics(opens in a new tab).

Information on the strengths and limitations of the Explore Local Statistics service and methods used is available in the quality and methodology information (QMI) report.

Other indicators

Housing affordability ratio (residence-based) is one of 104 local indicators on the Explore local statistics service. See the full list of local indicators.