UK city homes least affordable since 2008 as wage growth lags

[LONDON] The affordability of a home in UK cities is the worst in almost a decade, with the average house price nearly seven times annual earnings, according to Lloyds Bank.

Oxford is Britain's least affordable city, with property values almost 11 times wages, and Stirling in Scotland came top with prices 3.7 times income. While the average cost of a home in a British city rose 32 per cent in the past four years to 224,926 pounds (S$394,000), annual earnings have only increased 7 per cent.

Greater London was the second-least affordable city, even as home costs in the capital posted their largest annual drop in almost six years in February, according to website Rightmove Plc.

It underperformed the rest of the country during 2016 after Britain's vote to leave the European Union and tax increases on landlords in the early part of the year weighed on demand.

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