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Homes cost most in the whole of UK
Borough least affordable place to buy
CAMDEN has topped a rich-list as the second most expensive place to buy a house in the whole of England and Wales.
According to figures published this week by the Land Registry, it is just behind Kensington and Chelsea.
The average price of a home in Camden is now just below half-a-million pounds, at £438,294.
It has also been home to the country’s biggest annual rise in house prices – they have increased by 14.1 per cent in the borough, which is good for investors looking to turn over a profit, but bad for families hoping to buy for the first time.
The property survey also revealed Londoners pay almost double that of people buying in the rest of England and Wales, with the average price now set at around £300,000.
Also, the number of millionaires in London has doubled, with the number of properties valued at a million increasing from 223 to 334 since last year. But according to figures released by the London Housing Federation, Camden was revealed as the least affordable place to live in the capital.
In a report, called London’s Housing Timebomb, it revealed that the gulf between Camden’s pay and its house prices is widening, meaning fewer people are able to buy for the first time.
While the average mortgage in London is 8.8 times the average salary, in Camden, that figure shoots up to 10.7 times the average income.
Because banks only lend people mortgages 3.5 times their salary – which in Camden, averages out at £40,000 – many people find it impossible to buy. To be able to buy in the borough, people must be earning around £79,000, according to the report, which came out last week.
Highlighting the runaway price of houses since 1997, its research shows that Camden’s house prices have risen by 40 per cent in that time – although London’s average house price has risen by 139 per cent. Wages in the capital have only risen 34 per cent.
The report also highlights the shortage of social housing. Camden currently has 16,532 people on waiting lists for affordable housing, with 2,172 in temporary housing.
Berwyn Kinsey, head of the London Housing Federation, said: “In London’s overheated property market, it’s clear that most people won’t be able to buy very much with the standard mortgage of three times their income.
“However, simply offering people larger mortgages is not the solution and risks encouraging people to take on unmanageable levels of debt. Instead, we want the government to help housing associations to build more homes both for rent and for affordable home ownership such as shared-ownership or HomeBuy.”
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