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Home ownership gives 25% salary boost

Cherry Reynard
Written By:
Cherry Reynard
Posted:
Updated:
12/02/2019

Owning a house has boosted earnings by more than a quarter over the last decade, finds new research.

Britain’s urban hotspots have seen property prices rise by £63,444 on average, equivalent to 25.6% of average take-home pay.

Top of the list were university cities Oxford and Cambridge. Research from financial advice group Responsible Life showed that Cambridge resident saw their average gross income rise 21.6% to £40,222 between 2008 and 2018, while their average property price climbed 88.9% to £433,756. This gave them a 74.3% bonus.

In Oxford, gross earnings rose 22.7% to £35,869 while the average property price climbed 66.9% to £406,491. Oxford residents received a 66.1% bonus.

This was in notable contrast to Blackpool where average incomes have only risen 32.9% to £28,870 and average property prices fell 6.6%. Of the 105 major UK towns and cities in the study, only properties in Blackpool and Middlesbrough have made a loss over the last 10 years, having failed to recover from the financial crash in 2008.

Steve Wilkie, managing director of Responsible Life, said: “Even in times of economic turmoil, Britain’s houses remain solid investments that stand the test of time. Britons make such substantial gains on their homes that, for many, it makes up for all the tax paid on their income. Bricks and mortar is treated as an investment by many when it comes to retirement planning and on this evidence that is unlikely to change.”

The 10 areas where house price appreciation boosted net income the most over a decade:

Local Authority Raw House Price Growth House price gain as % of Net Income
Cambridge £204,112 74.3%
Oxford £162,952 66.1%
Watford £150,976 56.3%
Stevenage £135,000 53.6%
Brighton and Hove £135,189 53.5%
Slough £123,094 52.4%
Guildford £167,712 52.3%
Bristol £119,156 51.2%
Basildon £132,583 50.8%
Bath £128,543 49.9%