Isle of Wight homes are more affordable this year, new data calculates

Each year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) calculates housing affordability by comparing the median house price in a local authority area to the median full-time annual income of people who live there.

The higher the ratio is, the less affordable homes are to buy.

House prices have soared on the Isle of Wight since 2002 – the earliest point at which local data is available.

The median cost of a property then was £105,000, with last year's figure more than double that. Over the same period, the median annual salary increased by £11,432, a 65% rise.

Average house prices on the Island were listed at £220,000 and the average annual salary £28,889 in 2020.

This meant prospective buyers would need 7.6 times their annual salary to buy a home — down from 8.0 a year earlier.

Finchlee, Lower Bettesworth Road, Ryde, is one property currently on the market.

Polly Neate, chief executive of housing charity Shelter, said: "We haven’t built enough good quality or affordable homes for decades, meaning house prices have sky-rocketed.

"With no way of buying and a chronic shortage of social homes, millions have become trapped in expensive private rentals."

"The Government must urgently invest in building social housing."

A report by the Chartered Institute of Housing says that across the UK as a whole, house prices are more affordable than at their most recent peak in 2007, but less so than compared to 1994.