Housing – earnings, unoccupied dwellings and affordability

This post looks at the data for the 315 local authorities in England and Wales.

These include unitaries, district councils and London Boroughs.  The differences in population size are therefore quite wide. Analysis of affordability and unoccupied dwelling provides some interesting results.

 

[Variations in private sector rents at local authority level can largely be attributed to resident earnings.  This is similar to the situation with house prices.  Analysis of full-time earnings from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings and private sector rents at local authority level shows that there is a definite relationship.  Areas with higher earnings have higher rent levels. 

 

Unoccupied dwellings

If local authorities are ranked according to monthly full-time earnings and then examined in terms of affordability some interesting variations emerge which suggest that the share of unoccupied dwellings in an area are a factor in creating unaffordability.

 

Several examples can be used to illustrate this.  In London the four Boroughs of Camden, Kensington & Chelsea, Wandsworth and Westminster are all in the worst decile for affordability. Three are in the top decile for the unoccupied dwelling share.  In contrast, St. Albans, Wokingham and East Hertfordshire all with similar earnings levels have better affordability and have far lower shares of unoccupied dwellings.  A similar situation exists with Hackney which exhibits similar attributes to the four London boroughs referred to previously.  Yet Uttlesford, Waverly and East Hertfordshire, with similar earnings show better affordability levels.

 

Monthly full-time earnings are the same for Somerset and Manchester, yet affordability is lower in Manchester than in Somerset.  Again Manchester has a higher share of unoccupied dwellings than Somerset.

 

Haringey and Three Rivers (in Hertfordshire), are both in the worst decile for affordability. Of the two however, Haringey is the least affordable and has the highest share of unoccupied dwellings.

 

Analysis of the data comparing Cornwall and eleven local authorities with similar earnings throws up some interesting points. With the exception of Salford, all the authorities have more affordable rents than Cornwall.  The difference between Cornwall (and Salford), and the other authorities is that both have a higher share of dwellings, which are unoccupied/second homes.

 

Conclusion

As with house prices, local variations in private rents largely reflect earnings levels whether total earnings or full-time earnings. Affordability reflects this being worse in areas with higher earnings. Areas with similar earnings but with a higher share of unoccupied dwellings exhibit worse affordability than full-time earnings figures would suggest.

 

Notes

Local authority areas vary in terms of population from large cities to smaller district councils in more rural areas.

 

Local authority data for England, Wales and areas in Scotland.

 

The private rent figures used are the average total for an area.  This will be influenced by the composition of property sizes.

 

Earnings data is for one person. A household with two adults would therefore have a higher household income. 

 

Earnings figures are for employment only.  Some households will have higher earnings due to other sources – investment, property, while self-employment earnings tend to be lower.

 

Sources

Office for National Statistics, (2025), Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Resident earnings - Total Gross median.

 

Office for National Statistics, (2025), Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Resident earnings – Full-time Gross median.

  

Office for National Statistics, (January 2026), Private rent and house prices, UK: December, Statistical Bulletin. Data figure 8.