Junaid Rehman

Saving a London first home deposit takes nearly twice as long as it did in 2000

4 min read

At 10% of median full-time net income, a London first home deposit that took about eight years to save in 2000 now takes around fourteen. Two numbers govern the movement: London house prices and median earnings. The years between 2000 and 2025 show how that relationship reshaped the timeline.

London first home deposit now takes 14 years to save

At a 10% net savings rate, a London deposit took 7.8 years to accumulate in 2000, peaked at 17.8 years in 2017, and required 14.3 years in 2025. The England figure moved from 5.0 years to a 2022 peak of 10.4 and stood at 9.0 in 2025.

London has stayed far above the rest of England throughout, and the gap has not closed.

Why the London timeline kept expanding

When the deposit costs less than a year’s net income, a 10% savings rate closes the gap inside a reasonable horizon. When it costs more, the maths changes shape.

London 10% deposit now costs around 1.4 years of net pay

The London deposit-to-net-income ratio crossed above 1.0 in 2003 and has remained above since, reaching 1.78 in 2017 and 1.43 in 2025. England's ratio crossed above 1.0 between 2021 and 2023, peaked at 1.04 in 2022, and stood at 0.90 in 2025.

London has held above the threshold for over two decades. England’s brief crossing between 2021 and 2023 came and went. The ratio is the slowest-moving variable in the system, and at 10% saved the timeline equals the ratio multiplied by ten.

A 10% deposit is the floor. The 20% deposit most buyers put down doubles the timeline, to around thirty years.

The years that did the work

A timeline that moves in net terms is built from years that either gained ground against the target or lost it.

London first home deposit lost most ground in 2014–16

In 2014, 2015, and 2016 the London deposit target moved away by £2,084, £2,324, and £3,071 against a 10% net savings rate, the largest consecutive losses in the period. Sixteen of the twenty-five years gained ground; nine fell back.

In the 2014 to 2016 window, the deposit target outpaced what saving could add to position. The recovery that followed has retraced part of the run-up but not closed it. Across the UK, the average first-time buyer is now 33, two years older than a decade ago.

This is a data analysis and visualisation, not financial or mortgage advice. The calculation models a single median full-time earner saving 10% of net annual income toward a deposit of 10% of the purchase price, with gross earnings converted to net using HMRC tax and National Insurance rates for each year, and does not account for joint purchasing, family contributions, regional variation within London, or individual circumstance. The author accepts no responsibility for financial decisions made on the basis of this analysis.