UK house prices have dropped. They’re still not affordable.

June data from Nationwide showed that UK house prices took their biggest monthly tumble in two years, while property website Rightmove this month said it had shown the steepest decline in two decades. However, as any Briton even flirting with the idea of clambering onto the property ladder anytime soon will tell you, they’re still looking very expensive. 

Per annual figures from the Office for National Statistics published in March, housing affordability across the UK — while down from pandemic-era highs, when prices were going up and earnings were going down — remains a foundational problem.

Indeed, though activity in Britain’s housing market has remained “surprisingly resilient,” per Nationwide’s chief economist, buyers around the country still face home prices that far outstrip their wages. In Wales, for instance, the median house price sat at £201,000 — 5.9x more than the median annual pay packet. The median wage in England was £37,600, while the median cost of a house was £290,000. House prices in the capital, meanwhile, cost 11.06x more than Londoners’ median wages.

The obvious question — “what’s the right level?” — is a bit like asking “how long’s a piece of string?” But, for what it’s worth, the ONS uses a 5x earnings ratio for affordability to reflect the fact that mortgages are typically offered at “multiples of four to five times income.” Even after the recent declines, that ratio looks very far away for the UK’s would-be homebuyers.