House and flat prices are now too expensive for single first-time buyers in all regions of the UK except Scotland.

Mortgage lenders will usually lend a single person three and a half times their income to buy a property.

But research carried out by salary database PayFinder.com found house prices are now more than four times average earnings for first-time buyers.

The problem is worse in London, where the average first-time buyer property costs £194,561 but where salaries for single first-home hunters average £29,413.

It means a single person would need to borrow 6.84 times their income, or raise a deposit of nearly £92,000.

The situation was little better in the South-East, where first-time buyer properties cost 5.83 times average incomes, leaving buyers with a £63,000 shortfall, or the South-West, where at 6.28 times average incomes people would need a deposit of £54,000.

In East Anglia, house prices average 5.48 times a first-time buyer's salary, while property costs 5.14 times average earnings in the West Midlands and 5.05 times in the East Midlands.

Even areas which have traditionally been more affordable are becoming expensive for people trying to buy their first home.

In Wales, a first home now costs 5.31 times average first-time buyer earnings, meaning someone would need a £33,000 deposit.

In the North-West a property costs 4.59 times average earning, in Yorkshire and Humberside it costs 4.53 times and in the North it costs 4.44 times average pay.

At about £84,380, property in Northern Ireland costs about 4.57 times a first-time buyer's salary.

But in Scotland first homes averaged £67,293 or 3.43 times a first-time buyer's income.

Monday April 05, 2004