ONE-THIRD of young working households in York are unable to buy their own home, according to a report out today.

Research by University of York professor Steve Wilcox has pinpointed the problems of younger households whose incomes are:

Too high to qualify for Housing Benefit if they lived in social rented accommodation

Too low to afford a mortgage on even the cheapest two or three bedroomed house for sale.

The report, published by the York-based Joseph Rowntree Foundation, features a league table which highlights areas with the worst problems.

In York, 33.2 per cent of young households are affected, placing the city at 99th in the league table. That is better than Ryedale, where just over 40 per cent of young households are affected. Ryedale is the only district from outside the south of England to feature in the top 40, coming in at 34th place.

Harrogate is the next worst authority area in Yorkshire and Humberside, situated in 88th place with 34.9 per cent of people affected.

Hambleton is in 133rd spot, with 30 per cent, Selby is in 275th place, with 16.7 per cent of young households affected and the East Riding of Yorkshire is in 299th position, with 12.8 per cent affected. Kingston upon Hull is in 398th, with only a tiny number - 0.7 per cent - affected, while Middlesbrough suffers no such problems whatsoever.

Prof Wilcox said the analysis revealed a "yawning gap" in the market for "intermediate housing products," such as shared ownership and attractively priced private renting, which was potentially much larger than had previously been recognised by the Government.

He said: "At the very least, the figures justify some new and creative thinking on ways that the current range of intermediate housing products could be expanded to appeal to the growing number of young, working households who simply cannot afford local house prices."

Coun Sue Sunderland, City of York Council's executive member for housing, said difficulties for young people in buying their own homes had been recognised for quite a while in York.

She said the authority was trying to tackle the problem by insisting on the construction of affordable housing in developments.

She said it also worked in partnership with housing associations for homes to be sold at a substantial discount off the open market price and for shared ownership schemes. People had to be able to show that they could not afford to buy a house at full market price, but could get a mortgage and had sufficient savings for a deposit and legal fees.

According to Land Registry data published in August, the average price of a typical first-time buyer terraced York property in April-June was £165,750, up from £145,099 the same time last year. In North Yorkshire, the average price for such a property was £148,196, compared with £139,731 the previous year.

Updated: 10:35 Tuesday, October 11, 2005