House price history: How the market has changed since 1966

Jun 8, 2018

Getting on to the property ladder is three times harder today than it was in 1966 when England won the World Cup and the average house was £2,006 compared to today’s £211,000.

To coincide with the World Cup, online mortgage broker Trussle has compared UK house price data from today with the year the England football team lifted the coveted gold trophy.

It discovered house prices were 106 times higher than they were 52 years ago, growing three times faster than wages. Indeed the average UK salary in 1966 was £798, a figure which as soared to £26,500 in 2018.

Of course all these statistics alter entirely if you focus in on the footballers themselves. For the average player it’s now much easier to get on to the property ladder.

On average Premier League footballers earn 1,136 times more than their predecessors such as Bobby Moore, George Best and Pele back in the 1960s.

Trussle also compared how the current England squad fare financially with the heroes of 1966. It discovered England right back Kyle Walker earned around 867 times more than George Cohen, who played in the same position in the 1966 winning squad.

While Walker earns £130,000 a week at Manchester City, Cohen was on just £80 a week at his team Fulham in the 1960s. He ended up selling his medal in 1998 because of financial difficulties and his team mate, Geoff Hurst, went on benefits after retiring from football.

Ishaan Malhi, CEO and founder of Trussle, said: “A lot has changed since England won the World Cup. We’ve put a man on the moon, invented the internet and we’ve seen technology transform almost every aspect of our lives.

“We’ve also seen the UK housing market change dramatically. Prices have soared in the last 52 years, wages have struggled to keep pace and for young people the chances of getting on the property ladder will feel a lot slimmer than they did in 1966.”

Article originally posted by What Mortgage