Housing out of your league – unless you’re a footballer

England captain Steven Gerrard may boast a £3.9m mansion but it’s a far cry from the modest home he grew up in on a tough council estate in Liverpool. Gerrards Lane in Merseyside and Gerrard Street in London may both share a name with one of the top ten richest footballers who played in the World Cup in Brazil but that’s where the similarities end.

The average terrace in England and Wales is now worth £123,4871 but the average terrace in the Merseyside borough of Knowsley, where Gerrards Lane is located, is just £83,5991. Around 200 miles south, Gerrard Street in Soho is at the heart of the property bubble. The average price of a terrace in the City of Westminster is £2,845,5871 – 34 times more than a terrace in Knowlsey. Prices of terraces in Westminster have soared 252% over the last ten years while terraces in Knowsley have increased by 62%.

The annual salary required for an 80% mortgage on the average terrace in Knowsley is £19,1082, but in Westminster you would need to be earning £650,4203 to buy an average terrace. This is equivalent to what Steven Gerrard makes in just over a month.

Gerrard’s two acre property in Merseyside boasts a two-storey gym, swimming pool, children’s playground and putting green. For the same price he could only stretch to a 1,872 ft2 flat in Soho Square.

The situation is similar on other roads which share a name with an England footballer. Derbyshire, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Harrow all have a Welbeck Road, but while the average price of a terrace in Derbyshire is just £78,3991, a terrace in Newcastle can fetch £117,6831, and a terrace in Harrow will set you back £297,9431.

Ruth Davison, director of policy and external affairs at the National Housing Federation (NHF), said: “Unless you are lucky enough to earn a footballer’s wage, the chances of being able to buy your own home are becoming ever more slim. Our housing market has long been weakened by the lack of new houses being built, which is forcing up house prices – leaving millions of people struggling to get on the property ladder.

“Unless the Government addresses the chronic under-supply of homes, an entire generation are at risk of being locked out of the housing market. Our ambition is to solve the housing crisis in a generation but the only way to succeed is to say yes to more of the right homes in the right places at the right price.” 

•The NHF is the voice of the UK’s housing associations. For more information, go to: www.housing.org.uk.

•The NHF also campaigns for better housing. It is running a “Yes to Homes” campaign to help people lobby local decision makers for more affordable homes in their area. For more information, go to: www.yestohomes.co.uk.