I recently read a report by the Yorkshire Building Society that 54% of the country has seen wages (salaries) rise faster than property prices in the last 10 years. The report said that in the Midlands and North, salaries had outperformed property prices since 2007, whilst in other parts of the UK, especially in the South, the opposite has happened and property prices have outperformed salaries quite noticeably.
As regular readers of my blog know, I always like to find out what has actually happened locally in Hounslow. To talk of North and South is not specific enough for me. Therefore, to start, I looked at what has happened to salaries locally since 2007. Looking at the Office of National Statistics (ONS) data for Hounslow London Borough Council, some interesting figures came out…
| Hounslow | London | Nationally | |
| 2007 | £26,525 | £28,907 | £23,920 |
| 2008 | £26,224 | £30,238 | £24,960 |
| 2009 | £27,908 | £31,106 | £25,506 |
| 2010 | £28,642 | £31,533 | £26,088 |
| 2011 | £28,616 | £31,658 | £26,010 |
| 2012 | £29,328 | £31,892 | £26,432 |
| 2013 | £29,047 | £31,892 | £26,931 |
| 2014 | £29,255 | £32,089 | £27,097 |
| 2015 | £29,151 | £32,282 | £27,508 |
| 2016 | £30,342 | £32,885 | £28,132 |
Salaries in Hounslow have risen by 14.39% since 2007 (although it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster ride to get there!) – interesting when you compare that with what has happened to salaries regionally (an increase of 13.76%) and nationally, an increase of 17.61%.
Next, I needed to find what had happened to property prices locally over the same time frame of 2007 and today. Net property values in Hounslow are 45.2% higher than they were in late 2007 (not forgetting they did dip in 2008 and 2009). Therefore…
Property values in the Hounslow area have increased at a higher rate than wages to the tune of 30.81% … meaning, Hounslow is in line with the regional trend
