More than four fifths of local authority areas have less than one in ten homes affordable to a single first-time buyer. Have you abandoned your hopes of ever owning a house? And how have house prices affected your relationship decisions?

It may not come as much of a surprise, but single first-time buyers on an average salary are badly affected when it comes to buying a property. Less than 10% of homes in every local authority area in London, the south-east and the south-west, and in more than 95% of local authority areas in the West Midlands and east, are affordable to a single person on an average income. What's even more worrying is that these figures were based on the assumption that a deposit is already secured.

However, according to Shelter's report, the picture is much better for couples on two average full-time incomes without any children. Although the proportion of housing is still terrifyingly small, this group has only two areas without any housing in their price-range: Westminster, and Kensington and Chelsea. In the north-east, these couples could afford 60% of two bedroom properties, followed by 53.7% in Yorkshire and Humber, falling to 3.5% in London.



In comparison, single people have 13 local authority areas without affordable properties, and only 0.2% and 2.6% of properties available to them in London and the south-east, respectively.

After decades of growth, the number of homeowners is falling. It’s not just soaring property prices, but that earnings have not kept pace. Nationwide reported a 13th consecutive month of house price increases in May, bringing the cost of an average UK home to £186,512 – more than the previous peak reached in October 2007 before the financial crisis took hold. Average first-time buyer incomes, used in the report, were calculated at £29,251 for men, £23,589 for women, falling to £22,001 and £20,295 for men and women respectively in the 22-29 age group.

Photograph: /Shelter

As more people are priced out, rental market prices increase and standards drop.

How have house prices affected you? Have you been delayed from starting a family? Have you bought with a partner to overcome the restriction of a single income? Or have you grouped together with friends, and how did it work out?



Share your experiences of how the housing market has affected your relationships in the thread below.

