Property still accruing more value than earnings

Haringey in North London saw prices rise by £91,000, followed by Harrow (£77,791), St Albans (£72,995) and Waltham Forest (£63,646).

Property still accruing more value than earnings

Homeowners in one in three UK areas earnt more from capital appreciation than working in the past two years, research from Halifax has revealed.

Haringey in North London saw prices rise by £91,000, followed by Harrow (£77,791), St Albans (£72,995) and Waltham Forest (£63,646).

Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax, said: “Buoyancy in the housing market over the past two to five years has resulted in homes increasing in value by more than total take-home earnings for the average homeowner in many areas, though mostly in southern England.

“While it’s no longer unusual for houses to ‘earn’ more than the people living in them in some places, there are clearly local impacts.

“Homeowners in these areas can build up large levels of equity quickly, but for potential buyers whose wages have failed to keep pace, the cost of buying a home has become more unaffordable during that time.”

Outside the South of England there were strong gains in Warwick in the West Midlands (£21,240), Trafford in Greater Manchester (£14,170) and Harrogate in North Yorkshire (£12,508).

The only regions where the top performing local area saw earnings exceed house price increases were the North East (-£3,324), Scotland (-£11,510) and Northern Ireland (-£15,951).