Buying today · 2025

    The Deposit Gap

    The part your income alone doesn't cover.

    Choose a London borough to see the gap between first-time-buyer income and the price of a typical first home.

    …or tap a borough on the map.

    CityBarnetBexleyBromleyCroydonEnfieldHackneyHaveringHillingdonKensingtonLambethNewhamRichmondSouthwarkTower HamletsWestminster
    ← Smaller gapBigger gap →
    See the numbers
    Income assumption

    Every London borough, 2025

    First-time buyer figures by London borough, 2025
    £600,000£95,807£392,49974.5%£152,940£168,8691,104
    £680,000£119,507£455,99975.0%£170,000£142,219687
    £545,000£92,500£378,00075.3%£134,833£128,7502,834
    £575,000£100,008£396,99973.6%£151,685£124,9641,182
    £535,000£91,200£365,99574.2%£138,030£124,6001,357
    £475,000£80,000£330,89975.7%£115,520£115,0001,245
    £490,000£83,884£357,00083.6%£80,213£112,522877
    £780,000£148,452£550,00072.5%£214,656£111,966410
    £625,000£114,996£430,24975.0%£156,250£107,518794
    £490,000£85,741£339,49975.2%£121,765£104,1661,338
    £475,000£83,500£324,99575.0%£118,750£99,2501,944
    £463,000£81,700£327,39975.3%£114,268£95,3501,780
    £475,000£84,568£344,49580.0%£95,000£94,4441,606
    £450,000£79,189£334,69983.5%£74,070£93,6501,378
    £447,500£78,863£318,74980.2%£88,471£92,6171,385
    £465,000£83,510£360,00084.8%£70,773£89,2051,323
    £475,000£85,932£342,00079.3%£98,468£88,3062,329
    £470,000£85,000£337,99979.5%£96,350£87,5001,806
    £435,000£77,359£325,00080.7%£84,172£86,8851,322
    £450,000£82,133£344,79583.2%£75,555£80,4021,126
    £478,000£90,000£361,49581.2%£90,055£73,0001,304
    £430,000£79,780£320,00080.7%£83,076£70,9901,693
    £410,000£75,422£305,49985.0%£61,500£70,6011,265
    £445,000£83,200£333,99580.4%£87,309£70,600906
    £425,000£79,129£311,99980.2%£83,980£68,9201,935
    £425,000£79,600£350,99985.3%£62,687£66,8001,679
    £517,500£100,700£401,49981.5%£95,738£64,350971
    £376,000£69,295£300,00084.5%£58,355£64,1731,152
    £390,000£73,416£300,00084.8%£59,085£59,6282,279
    £450,000£88,467£330,99576.6%£105,255£51,8991,586
    £425,000£83,390£337,50085.0%£63,750£49,7451,920
    £400,000£77,933£332,39985.3%£58,960£49,3021,571
    £625,000£129,996£380,00070.0%£187,500£40,01841

    For illustration only. What you can borrow depends on your circumstances and the lender.

    How did we work this out?

    We use official ONS and FCA housing, mortgage and earnings data. We compare what homes cost with what buyers or local residents typically earn.

    The gap is the typical first-time-buyer home price minus 4.5× the typical first-time-buyer income. It's an illustration of what income alone might support — not what any lender would offer.

    See full methodology

    Methodology

    How we calculate this

    Every figure comes from official statistics stored exactly as published. Derived figures are calculated live from those stored values and are illustrative, population-level statistics — not an assessment of any individual's mortgage.

    Estimated deposit implied by median FTB LTV
    deposit = FTB property value × (1 − median LTV ÷ 100)
    Illustrative Deposit Gap
    gap = max(0, FTB property value − median FTB income × 4.5)
    Illustrative income required
    income = (property value × (1 − deposit %)) ÷ 4.5
    Affordability ratio (published by ONS)
    ratio = median house price ÷ median gross annual earnings

    The data

    First-time buyer figures come from the ONS release “First-time buyer mortgage sales, by local authority, UK”, which is based on the Financial Conduct Authority's Mortgage Product Sales Data (PSD001). It covers regulated mortgage sales where the buyer is recorded as a first-time buyer, 2006–2025.

    Affordability history comes from the ONS “House price to earnings ratio” releases. House prices are medians for the year ending September; earnings are median gross annual pay for full-time employees from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.

    Residence vs workplace earnings. Residence-based earnings describe what people living in a borough earn; workplace-based earnings describe what people working there earn. Residence-based figures start in 2002, so the Time Machine uses workplace-based earnings to show the full 1997–2025 period. You can switch to residence-based earnings from 2002.

    Boundaries are ONS Local Authority District (December 2024) generalised boundaries, joined to statistics by official area code.

    Things to know

    Medians, not averages. A median is the middle value, so a few very expensive sales don't distort it.

    Combining medians. The median property value, median income and median LTV may describe different buyers. Figures built from them, such as the Deposit Gap, show what a typical purchase looks like across the area. They are not the circumstances of one real buyer.

    Income multiples. 4.5× income is a common illustration of lender limits. You can switch to 4.0× or 5.0×. Real limits depend on the lender, credit history, outgoings and other criteria.

    Income figures. ONS labels the first-time buyer income field as the median income of buyers in the mortgage sale. We show it as published.

    Missing values are shown as “No data”. We never estimate or fill gaps.

    This research is for information only and is not personal mortgage advice.

    Sources and release dates

    Page data last refreshed 16 October 2026.

    For journalists

    Using this data in a story?

    You may reproduce these charts with attribution to Casa Capital. Download the underlying data or contact us if you need a bespoke cut.

    Contact Casa Capital
    Casa Capital Homebuyer Index, based on Office for National Statistics and FCA mortgage data.

    The map shows London. Your mortgage is personal.

    National statistics can show what buyers typically do. They can't tell you what your own circumstances could unlock.