So how will the next Mayor make London affordable?

According to the latest research by property crowdfunding platform Property Partner, 28 out of 33 London boroughs have house prices that are at least 10 times the average salery. Kensington and Chelsea, with house prices around 38 times the average salery, are out of reach for all bar the super-rich.

So with affordable housing the key electoral battleground, can Londoners expect an improvement under one of the two frontrunners, Zac Goldsmith or Sadiq Khan?

Let’s compare the records of current and former mayors, Ken and Boris.

Property Partner has analysed the latest data from the Department for Communities and Local Government, showing the ratio of average house prices to average earnings for London boroughs and English regions from 2000 to 2015.

When Ken Livingstone became London’s first directly-elected mayor in May 2000, the ratio of house prices to earnings across the capital stood at 5.6.  By the time he left office in 2008, this figure had jumped 47% to 8.3 times average earnings.

In 2000, many of London’s less affluent boroughs were affordable by UK-wide standards. Houses in Barking & Dagenham cost on average 3.4 times earnings, in inner city Newham they were 4.3. But during Ken’s tenure as mayor, prices in these boroughs rocketed away from local earnings, by 113% in Barking & Dagenham and 110% in Newham.

Since Boris Johnson was elected in 2008, house prices have also marched upwards, albeit at a slower rate. Prices across London have risen to 11 times average annual pay, with all but 5 of the 33 London boroughs (Barking and Dagenham, Bexley, Tower Hamlets, Croydon, Havering) into double-digits. Under Boris, the tech and hipster haven of Hackney has become less affordable, faster than any other local area in the UK, with prices rising to 14.7 times average earnings.

Consider this: on instruction from the Bank of England, most mortgage lenders restrict borrowing above 4.5 times salary. Unsurprisingly, these more ‘affordable’ outer boroughs are now seeing the strongest house price growth, presenting the best opportunities for first- time buyers and investors.

The following table shows the breakdown of affordability ratios for each London borough including the City of London for 2000, 2008 and 2015 (latest figures).

English regions

Outside London, the South East and East of England, the picture is very different. Housing affordability levels are still below their pre-Global Financial Crisis peak in every other region. In England as a whole, the affordability ratio has stretched by just 0.02% in the nine years from 2007 to 2016.
 
The following table shows house prices to earnings ratio for the English regions for 2000, 2007  (pre-credit crunch) and 2015.