The ability of key public sector workers to purchase their own home continues to improve and is approaching the level achieved ten years ago before the house price boom, according to recent research from Halifax.

The research shows that – based on the benchmark ratio of average house price to average earnings, where housing is considered affordable to buy if the ratio is below 4.0 – the average priced home in 38% of towns is apparently now affordable for the average key worker to purchase, a rise from 36% in 2012.

This improvement in the past year has come largely as result of house price declines in northern areas.

Home purchase affordability has improved considerably since 2008 when homes in just 4% of towns were judged to be affordable for key workers to buy. Nonetheless, affordability remains below the 2003 level when the average house was considered to be affordable in 43% of towns.

Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax, explained that the greatest concentration of affordable housing is found in towns in northern England, Scotland and Wales. However, there are still significant affordability issues for key workers in London and the South East.

"A combination of declining or static house prices in many areas, combined with some growth in earnings, has contributed to the improvement in housing affordability since 2008. However, significant house price growth in the past decade as a whole has meant that housing is still unaffordable in more than half of the towns surveyed," Martin Ellis concluded.

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