A study published by property website Zoopla.co.uk. shows that buyers on an average income can afford 58 percent of UK homes .A home is considered to be affordable if one third of the average income can cover the mortgage payments. The website has worked out an affordability rate based on average income and average house price at present mortgage rates and an LTV of 75 percent. At the market peak in 2007, only 34 percent of UK homes were affordable using this formula. Bradford was judged to be the most affordable city with four out of five homes being affordable while London was judged to be the least affordable with less than one third of the homes being affordable

Says Nicholas Leeming, commercial director of Zoopla.co.uk, “Affordability rates have improved substantially over the past couple of years as a result of lower mortgage rates and falling house prices that have now begun to stabilise."

 The Bank of England has published figures that show that the cost of a two-year fixed-rate mortgage in February was the lowest in 6 1/2 years. The average rate was 3 .88 percent, the lowest since July 2003, as against 3.97 percent in January, 2010. Five-year rates also were down to an average of 5.49 percent as against 5.56 percent in January while tracker rate stood at 3.69 percent, the second lowest since records were started in 1997.

Homebuyers now have 1798 options to choose from in the zero percent to 40 percent deposit range says financial information site moneyfacts.co.uk. an increase of 68 percent year on year. The number of mortgages that demand a 10 percent to 15 percent deposit stands at 489, compared to 258 at the same time last year.

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