HOME buyers in Worcestershire can only afford around 20 per cent of houses in the county, according to new data.

New analysis of Office of National Statistics Data shows where property prices have outgrown local wages the most in the last 10 years.

Using data from 2011 to 2020, the median house prices of each local authority in England, Scotland and Wales has been compared to each area's median gross salary to see the ratio of affordability.

According to the study, carried out by Online Mortgage Advisor, this shows affordability has become worse in the last 10 years.

Using January 2021 property market data, it can also be seen what percentage of homes in each local authority a person can afford right now, based on current mortgage rates.

The key findings for Worcester are as follows:

• Four out of six local authorities with comparable historic data in Worcestershire became less affordable to locals in 2020 compared to 2011.

• Bromsgrove's property prices outgrew its local wages more than any other local authority in Worcestershire.

• The average person in Worcestershire can only afford 20% of properties currently on the market.

• The average local in Redditch can only afford 11% of properties currently for sale - less than anywhere else in Worcestershire.

At a local level, Bromsgrove has seen the largest growth in the gap between the two measures of any local authority in Worcestershire. Malvern Hills and Wyre Forest are the only local authorities to see a slight decrease in ratio.

Bromsgrove's 2011 ratio was 6.8 and currently sits at 8.7. Wychavon's has risen from 7.7 to 9.4, Worcester has increased from 6.0 to 7.5 and Malvern Hills has seen its ratio actually improve, falling from 9.1 to 8.8.

For the affordability study, every property for sale in Britain from Zoopla's listings in January 2021 has been recorded to find out what percentage of these properties the average person is able to afford in their local authority, based on current mortgage rates affected by Covid-19.

To do this, the following formula was used: Mortgage (4.5x salary) + 15% deposit = Max price of property affordable.

According to this, people in Worcester can only afford 17.1 per cent of houses for sale in the county.

For Worcestershire as a whole, this rises to 20.3% when factoring in other districts.

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