The 100-year club: The professions where it would take at least a CENTURY to save a home deposit revealed

Bar staff, hairdressers and carers would have to wait for centuries to buy
Lollipop men and women would take the longest to save at 552.4 years
Property prices continue to rise faster than wages

Published: 05:54 EST, 7 September 2015 | Updated: 06:07 EST, 7 September 2015

View
comments

They are the hardworking professionals we rely on in many aspects of our lives. But for teaching assistants, cooks and care workers, saving for their first house could be little more than a fairy-tale.

Owning your first home is an important milestone in the UK, but many struggle to put together a deposit as prices continue to soar.

Certain occupations make it particularly tough to save to buy a home, and many UK workers would take more than 100 years to save their first housing deposit- making it a completely unrealistic prospect.

Centuries away: Road crossing assistants would take more than 500 years to put together a deposit

A teaching assistant would take 133.3 years to scrape together the average first time house deposit of £202,765, based on the ONS Annual Salaries data and research done by online estate agents HouseSimple.com.

That's on the assumption they could get a loan at 4.5 times their gross annual wage, and were able to put aside 10 per cent of their net salary every year.

Similarly, a taxi driver or chauffeur would take 100 years to save a big enough nest egg for their first home, based on an annual salary of £15,216.

Worst off are lollipop ladies and men, who would have to save for 552.4 years to cobble together the average deposit based on their average annual salary of £3,394.

Long wait ahead: a wide range of occupations would have to wait more than 100 years to get a deposit

House prices in England and Wales rose by 4.6 per cent in the year to July, with the average property now worth £183,861, according to figures from the Land Registry.

The biggest jump was in the East of England, where house values were up 8.9 per cent, followed by an 8.2 per cent rise in London.

While wage growth has picked up, salaries are rising at a far slower pace than property prices. The ONS Average Weekly Earnings report showed regular pay up by 2.8 per cent.

Despite the continuing squeeze, figures also show the number of completed house sales in England and Wales fell by 15 per cent in May this year to 65,619, compared with 77,488 in May 2014. However, tougher new mortgage rules brought in by the FCA in April 2014 dampened property sales in the second half of last year.

Green light: mortgage approvals hit a 17-month high in July, as the housing market heats up

This situation is now easing and more people have been given the green light to get a mortgage than last year.

Mortgage approvals hit a 17-month high last month, according to data from the Bank of England. In July, nearly £1billion more was lent out for purchases compared to May, which has been used as evidence that the UK housing market is heating up.

The rising figure has also been partly attributed to remortgage deals, as homeowners rush to secure a good price ahead of an expected rise in interest rates. Home sales are also rising.

Put off: sales of homes valued at £2million and above have slumped since the stamp duty reforms

But it's a different story at the top end of the market. Estate agents have said the new style of stamp duty has deterred buyers of luxury homes from moving, with sales down by more than a third.

In December last year, Chancellor George Osborne announced a surprise overhaul of the tax, which he called a 'badly designed tax on aspiration'.

Stamp duty now rises in the style of income tax, with the higher rate only affecting the value of the home that rose above certain thresholds.

Previously, the tax was taken in the form of a rising percentage on the entire purchase of the home, which was calculated according to which pricing band it fell into.

Homes worth £950,000 or more are worse off under the new rules, with buyers facing a 12 per cent transaction tax of any portion paid over £1.5million.

Transactions in the £2million plus market were down 38 per cent in the year to June, and Stuart Patterson, owner of Kensington and Chelsea-based estate agents Patterson Bowe, said the new system was to blame.

He said: ‘With the top end of the market stagnating, homeowners are finding it difficult to move on which is having a serious impact on the market as a whole.

'In our experience, stamp duty really still is the biggest issue for buyers at the top end of the market. As a healthy market is one that is inclusive of all buyers, we need to do more to address this issue at its core and liberate the top end of the market’.

Overall, residential property transactions fell by 4.4 per cent between June and July according to data from HM Revenue and Customs. Year on year, there was a slight 0.2 per cent increase in sales.