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Affordable homes still out of reach for first-time buyers

First-time buyers are still being priced out of the Edinburgh housing market, despite the recent decline in property prices. Recent research by the Bank of Scotland has found that the Scottish Capital is still rated as unaffordable because of the huge difference between the average price of property and the average wage.

Young people earning the city's average wage of around £33,000 will still find it difficult to get on to the property ladder. Despite the latest data from the Edinburgh Solicitors Property Centre (ESPC) showing that the average price of a home in the city dropped 12 per cent in November compared to November 2007.

Under current prices the average home in Edinburgh costs 6.6 times the average salary well above the 4.56 that the Bank of Scotland said is the UK average and a long way off the 4.0 needed to be judged as affordable. The affordability is not helped by lenders currently demanding large deposits for homeowners to secure mortgages.

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