Home affordability at "best level since 1997"

It's gradually becoming a bit of a golden era to become a buy-to-let landlord, if new statistics are anything to go by. Halifax this month (January 16th) revealed that the typical mortgage payments for a new borrower at the long-term average loan-to-value ratio were 27 per cent of disposable earnings in quarter four of 2011 - far below the 37 per cent average of the last 27 years.

This means that mortgage payments for all kinds of buyers have almost halved in terms of their proportion of income, dropping from a peak of 48 per cent in quarter three of 2007, prior to the recession.

Halifax attributed this change to a combination of reduced mortgage rates and lower house prices, effectively giving more breathing space for those paying utility bills and property insurance.

It is not a phenomenon local to only a handful of areas, either. A massive 95 per cent of local areas measured by the bank have seen falls in mortgage payments of at least 25 per cent of the proportion of their average earnings. Additionally, a further 18 areas have recorded improvements of half or more.

Some trends refuse to change, however, and there remains to be a clear north/south divide in terms of affordability. Mortgages in Yorkshire and the Humber, as well as Northern Ireland, stood at 21 per cent of disposable income, while they were their highest in Greater London (35 per cent).