Buying a home costs four times as much as 50 years ago, says Halifax

Published 21st Jan 2010

Buying a home costs four times as much as it did half a century ago in real terms, according to research by Halifax.


Average house prices, allowing for inflation, have increased 273 per cent in the past 50 years, making homes increasingly unaffordable.

A typical home could be bought for £2,507 in 1959, the equivalent to £43,713 in today’s money.

But home buyers are actually paying significantly more to buy an equivalent property now, needing £162,085.

Despite the recent housing slump, prices rose the most during the last decade with a real rise of 62 per cent, Halifax said.

It is slightly ahead of the 61 per cent increase during the 1980s and significantly higher than the 22 per cent drop during the 1990s, the worst decade for house prices.

Despite the price increases during the past four decades, Britain’s fondness for home-ownership has gone from strength to strength, rising from 43 per cent in 1961 to 68 per cent in 2008.

Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax, said there has been a significant shift towards buying a home with the majority of households now living in their own homes rather than renting.

The proportion of single person households in England has jumped from less than one in five households in 1971 to one in three in 2009.

He added: “There have been substantial changes in both the number of households and their composition; the typical household now is very different to 50 years ago.”

In 1960, 14 per cent of homes did not have an inside toilet but by 1996 this had decreased to 0.2 per cent.

Just over a fifth of households were without a basic hot water supply in 1967, but this had dropped to 1 per cent by 1991, while central heating in British homes increased from just 35 per cent in 1971 to 92 per cent in 2000.

The number of married households is down by almost a fifth since the 1970s, although these are still the most common type, while the number of co-habiting couple households has increased from 1 per cent in 1971 to 11 per cent in 2009.

Source: ' Telegraph '

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