It now takes 26 years for an average couple with one child to save for a house deposit in London

A house on sale for £600,000 in Chelsea, LondonDouglas & Gordon

LONDON — It now takes an average of nearly 26 years for a couple living in London with one child to save for a home deposit.

House prices have been rising steadily across the UK for several decades, but they have increased most dramatically in the capital, where the average first-time home now costs £402,692, according to research by Halifax Bank.

On top of that, Halifax found that the cost of a first-time buyer deposit has nearly quadrupled in the last decade, from £26,701 in 2006 to £100,445 last year.

That means, for an average couple with one child, it will take more than a quarter of a century of saving to buy a home. Even without a kid in tow, you’re looking at nearly 14 years.

Take a look at the chart from Barclays latest Housing Chartbook below, which uses data from the Redfern Review:

Barclays Housing Chartbook

The evidence is striking: big house prices, huge deposits, and unprecedented falls in real wage levels across the UK since the 2008 financial crash mean that it is now unrealistic for many first-time buyers to get on the property ladder until they are well into their forties.