Housing in one image
Prices, supply and affordability — the three numbers that set the market.
UK Facts · Housing
Homes got more affordable. They are still further out of reach than in 2010.
Affordability has improved for four straight years — because earnings rose faster than prices, not because houses got cheaper.
- 9.06years of median full-time earnings to buy a median home, 2021 peakThe highest point in the series for England (from 1997)
- 1.43the improvement sinceDriven by wage growth catching up, not by falling prices
- 7.63the ratio in 2025Better than 2021 — and still above the 6.85 of 2010
House price to earnings ratio (median house price ÷ median full-time workplace-based earnings), England, 1997 to 2025.
Supply has been falling while affordability improved
Net additional dwellings in England fell for a third consecutive year to 208,600 in 2024-25, down from a peak of 248,600 in 2019-20 and well short of the 300,000 target that has never been met. Affordability improving and supply falling at the same time is not a contradiction — it reflects earnings and interest rates, not housebuilding.
Read this carefully: These are England figures. ONS publishes the ratio for England and for Wales separately; there is no UK equivalent, because the four nations use different data sources — so any "UK affordability ratio" is not an official statistic.
England · 2025 · Released 26 March 2026
Source: ONS, Housing affordability in England and Wales: 2025 · uk-statpack.co.uk
See prices, supply and affordability together →UK Facts · Housing
£273,000
Average UK house price
July 2026 · United Kingdom. UK average, up 2.0% year on year; regional outcomes differ.
HM Land Registry UK House Price Index · verified 2026-09-19
209k
Net additional homes
England, 2024
MHCLG, Housing supply: net additional dwellings, England (Live Table 120)
7.6×
House price to earnings
England, median ratio, 2025
ONS, Housing affordability in England and Wales: 2025 (Table 1c, median ratio)
Figures cover different geographies and reporting periods. Open the full analysis for definitions and caveats before quoting any of them.
Generated from the same verified statistics and chart data as the rest of the site.