Average London home now costs £233,000

The price of an average London home is now almost £233,000, figures reveal today.

The Land Registry, which records every sale, has found that London prices are 13 per cent higher than they were a year ago and nine per cent higher than in April.

The average property price in London is now 6.7 times the average London salary, which is just under £35,000.

But it is 12 times the annual wage of a bus driver, 11 times the annual salary of a staff nurse or postal worker, and nine times the salary of a primary school teacher.

The biggest price rises took place in London's cheapest boroughs, reflecting the desperation of property buyers moving outwards to find affordable homes.

The biggest increase, 26 per cent since a year ago, was in Waltham Forest. Prices in this part of north-east London are being pushed up as a result of demand from home buyers who can no longer afford Hackney. From £118,000 a year ago, the average here is now £148,000.

Prices in Newham are up 23 per cent on last year. The area's transport links are attracting investors who are buying to let and the average

property now costs £136,000, up from £110,000. Prices in Bexley are also up by 22 per cent and in Croydon by 19 per cent.

The squeeze on London's affordable areas is confirmed by estate agents Winkworth. Chairman Simon Agace said: "There is a great deal of competition for properties at the lower end of the market, which means that some first-time buyers will find it even harder to get a foot on the ladder."

London's cheapest borough remains Barking & Dagenham. However, an annual increase of 21 per cent has raised the average above the £100,000 mark to £110,000 from £90,800 a year ago. A nurse would find it difficult to buy an average property even in this part of London.

Other parts of London saw much smaller price rises. In Tower Hamlets prices hardly rose at all, while in established residential areas like Camden, prices went up by six per cent, with seven per cent increases in Islington and eight per cent in Harrow.

Based on a 100 per cent cent mortgage of 3.5 times their salary, a nurse would be able to borrow £74,000 and a primary school teacher £92,000. Neither would be able to buy average priced homes in the cheapest boroughs.

Even a nurse and a teacher buying together would only be able to afford half the London average. Given a mortgage of 2.5 times their incomes, they would be able to buy an average priced property in Barking & Dagenham, or a small flat in Newham, Bexley, Waltham Forest or Croydon.

At the other end of the spectrum, the average property price in London's most expensive borough, Kensington & Chelsea, is £629,000, almost six times more than the average in Barking & Dagenham. Prices there rose by 11 per cent since last year.