'I earn £50k but can't afford to buy a house - my city isn't even the most expensive'
A woman earning above minimum wage says she wants to "cry, scream and shout" after admitting she will "not likely" ever own a house. Software engineer Emma Harris earns £50,000 a year and said renting and bills take about two-thirds of her salary.
"I am not likely to ever own a house and it's just depressing," she said. She lives in Birmingham, where last year the average price of a first-time buyer home was £215,000.
Ms Harris told the BBC: "I feel completely trapped in the situation I am in. The chances of me owning my own house are pretty much non-existent.
"I want to cry. I want to scream. I want to shout, and do various other things but none of them solve the issue - that I don't have the money to put away each month to scrape together the money for a deposit."
She said the idea of saving money for a deposit had caused "a few sleepless nights" and that she was unsure the new government's plan to build more homes would ease the situation.
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Ms Harris wanted mortgage lenders to take account of her regular payment of rent when assessing her ability to make repayments.
The estimates come from the Group, the Bank of England and the Office for National Statistics. The analysis measured people's financial ability to buy and then run a home in England, Wales and Scotland.
The figures suggested it was easiest for first-time buyers to get a property in Scotland where house prices were lower, and the East of England because of higher wages.
It was hardest for those in the West Midlands and Wales owing to a combination of low savings and moderate property prices, and London because of high house prices.
Among renters in the top 25 percent of earners (those with an income of more than £71,250 a year), only 44 percent could afford to buy a first home.
"For some, our findings paint a bleak picture, notably for first-time buyers," said Skipton chief executive Stuart Haire.
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