Homebuyers in the Yorkshire region are spending 22.7 per cent of their take-home pay on their mortgage - compared with the 48.8 per cent that was spent at the peak of the last housing boom in 1989.

After Wales (22.4 per cent) that makes Yorkshire's affordability quotient the lowest in Britain. London and the south east are, expectedly, the highest at 38 per cent and 36.3 per cent respectively.

The latest Affordability Index, released by Cheltenham & Gloucester, shows affordability is much better today than it was in 1989 when house prices reached their highest recorded level of the '80s.

Two key differences between then and now are that, today, factors affecting affordability have not deteriorated in the same way as they had in the late 1980s, and there is no expectation that interest rates will rise to anything like the levels reached in 1990.

John Simpson, C&G's regional manager for Yorkshire & Humberside,

said: "We've recently seen an increase

in house prices and a shortage in

housing supply that has fuelled rumours of a return to the boom/bust picture of the late '80s.

"The increase in house prices has caused a deterioration in affordability. However, now is very different from the 1980s and the Bank of England has already taken appropriate action by increasing interest rates, which should help to settle house price inflation to sensible levels."

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