Londoners on an average annual salary of £34,000 would have to save for 121 years before they have enough money for a deposit, according to new research by Property Partner.
With the average London flat costing £457,000, the deposit needed to buy the property – assuming the mortgage is four times the average London salary – would be a staggering £320,000.
If they were saving 10% of their net annual salary towards a deposit, it would take more than a century to have saved enough, without any financial help from the Bank of Mum and Dad.
Putting aside 20% of net income a year would take 60 years and saving half their salary would still mean a 24-year wait.
The most expensive borough is Kensington and Chelsea, where it would take 389 years to save the £1 million deposit needed. Even if you were able to save half your salary after tax, it would still be 78 years before you had enough cash to put down as a deposit for an average priced flat of £1.16 million.
Dan Gandesha, CEO and founder of Property Partner, said: “It’s staggering that if you have no help from family or friends, and you hope to buy on your own, it’s now almost impossible to afford anywhere in London. Even in the 10 most affordable boroughs you’d need to be saving an ambitious 20% of your net annual salary to stand a chance of getting the deposit together before you reached middle age.
“With record low interest rates and inflation rising, savers are seeing their money slowly erode. And if you’re also worried that property prices are running away from you, there are of course alternative ways of investing and tracking the market.
“The housing market is broken and we need a major shift in thinking. The British obsession with owning their own home is now for many, at least in London, a pipe dream. More needs to be done to incentivise the private rental sector. In Germany, long-term renting is generally accepted and the cohort of long-term renters in the UK is growing, by force of circumstance.
“Build-to-rent is one of many ideas to help solve the UK’s housing crisis, and the quicker we can provide good quality, professionally managed homes, for both the public and private lettings sector, the better.”
Table showing how long it takes to save up a deposit in London
| Boroughs | Average price of flat |
Deposit needed
|
Years saving 10% of net salary | Years saving 20% of net salary | Years saving 50% of net salary |
| Kensington and Chelsea | £1,168,220 | £1,030,940 | 388.96 | 194.48 | 77.79 |
| Westminster | £909,799 | £772,519 | 291.46 | 145.73 | 58.29 |
| City of London | £860,850 | £723,570 | 273.00 | 136.50 | 54.60 |
| Wandsworth | £860,850 | £723,570 | 273.00 | 136.50 | 54.60 |
| Camden | £719,779 | £582,499 | 219.77 | 109.89 | 43.95 |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | £692,201 | £554,921 | 209.37 | 104.68 | 41.87 |
| Islington | £602,556 | £465,276 | 175.54 | 87.77 | 35.11 |
| Hackney | £522,130 | £384,850 | 145.20 | 72.60 | 29.04 |
| Richmond upon Thames | £480,576 | £343,296 | 129.52 | 64.76 | 25.90 |
| Lambeth | £471,546 | £334,266 | 126.12 | 63.06 | 25.22 |
| Southwark | £469,408 | £332,128 | 125.31 | 62.65 | 25.06 |
| Haringey | £468,752 | £331,472 | 125.06 | 62.53 | 25.01 |
| Tower Hamlets | £464,511 | £327,231 | 123.46 | 61.73 | 24.69 |
| Barnet | £406,353 | £269,073 | 101.52 | 50.76 | 20.30 |
| Ealing | £404,936 | £267,656 | 100.98 | 50.49 | 20.20 |
| Merton | £402,404 | £265,124 | 100.03 | 50.01 | 20.01 |
| Brent | £394,948 | £257,668 | 97.22 | 48.61 | 19.44 |
| Kingston upon Thames | £363,114 | £225,834 | 85.20 | 42.60 | 17.04 |
| Newham | £355,759 | £218,479 | 82.43 | 41.21 | 16.49 |
| Lewisham | £354,387 | £217,107 | 81.91 | 40.96 | 16.38 |
| Waltham Forest | £351,535 | £214,255 | 80.84 | 40.42 | 16.17 |
| Harrow | £336,443 | £199,163 | 75.14 | 37.57 | 15.03 |
| Greenwich | £332,135 | £194,855 | 73.52 | 36.76 | 14.70 |
| Hounslow | £327,675 | £190,395 | 71.83 | 35.92 | 14.37 |
| Bromley | £297,773 | £160,493 | 60.55 | 30.28 | 12.11 |
| Redbridge | £294,735 | £157,455 | 59.41 | 29.70 | 11.88 |
| Enfield | £289,747 | £152,467 | 57.52 | 28.76 | 11.50 |
| Hillingdon | £278,513 | £141,233 | 53.29 | 26.64 | 10.66 |
| Sutton | £274,245 | £136,965 | 51.68 | 25.84 | 10.34 |
| Croydon | £273,876 | £136,596 | 51.54 | 25.77 | 10.31 |
| Bexley | £231,591 | £94,311 | 35.58 | 17.79 | 7.12 |
| Havering | £225,990 | £88,710 | 33.47 | 16.73 | 6.69 |
| Barking and Dagenham | £219,563 | £82,283 | 31.04 | 15.52 | 6.21 |
| AVERAGE | £457,785 | £320,505 | 120.92 | 60.46 | 24.18 |
