A stark new analysis has laid bare a deepening housing affordability crisis sweeping the United Kingdom, effectively shutting lower-middle-income households out of the property market in the vast majority of its cities.
The Growing Homeownership Gap
According to the latest report from Morta UK, published in November 2025, households earning between two-thirds and twice the local median income—the traditional definition of the British middle class—are being excluded. The study found that 42 out of 47 surveyed cities are now unaffordable for those at the lower end of this income bracket.
This represents a troubling societal shift where simply being on a middle income is no longer a guarantee of being able to buy, or even rent, a home in urban centres. The situation is so severe that even upper-middle-income earners face significant hurdles in 17 major cities, pointing to a fundamental structural problem where stagnant wages are utterly failing to keep up with soaring property prices.
Regional Disparities and Key Unaffordable Cities
The affordability gap is not uniform across the country, revealing significant regional divides. London continues to rank as the most challenging city for housing, despite boasting the highest median weekly pay in the UK. Property prices there remain prohibitively high, pushing the dream of homeownership far beyond the reach of many.
Similarly, Oxford, Reading, and Cambridge exhibit some of the widest affordability gaps. In Reading and Cambridge, the affordability ceiling for upper-middle-income earners has skyrocketed to over £600,000.
In stark contrast, cities like Bolton, Durham, and Southend-on-Sea present far lower affordability thresholds, demonstrating how geographical location is now the primary determinant of homeownership access for the middle class.
Broader Consequences and Systemic Pressure
The ramifications of this crisis extend far beyond individual buyers. The widening affordability gap is intensifying pressure on the UK's social housing system. Analysis by the National Housing Federation (NHF) earlier this year discovered that in some parts of London, waiting lists for social housing have ballooned to over 100 years.
This data is compounded by 2024 figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which indicated that purchasing a typical home in England now requires an average of 8.6 years of disposable household income. This effectively renders homeownership unattainable for the majority, with only the top 10% of earners able to comfortably manage the financial burden.
The issue is particularly acute in southern England, where even high-income groups encounter barriers due to sustained high property values and intense cost-of-living pressures, creating a perfect storm that is reshaping the UK's social and economic landscape.
