The lender surveyed 451 towns in the UK and found that owning a property is now unfeasible for the average earner in four-fifths of the towns in southern England, however, this is only true of one town in ten outside the south.
A first-time buyer in Sevenoaks in Kent needs to earn £63,304 to buy an average priced property of £216,566, which is £39,358 higher than average earnings in Kent of £23,946. This contrasts with Leven in Scotland where a first-time buyer only needs an income of £9,933, which is £13,389 below average earnings in the county.
Martin Ellis, group economist at the Halifax, said: "Many potential first-time buyers are being priced out of the housing market, particularly in southern England. These difficulties are forcing more and more people to buy with their partner or with friends or to delay purchase, which will inevitably continue the trend for first-time buyers to enter the market later in life when they will have higher earnings and higher savings."
