Buying a home is still out of reach for many

In a new report, depressing statistics show that with the average price of a home in the district of more than 235,000, it equates to almost 13 times the average annual wage of 18,300.

And in nearby Chichester the chances of home ownership are even worse.

With an average house price of just over 340,000, it is almost 30 times the average income of under 16,500, making it the single least-affordable area in the southeast.

With affordability the number one problem, the report states buying an average home in the southeast requires an income of almost 69,000, which is more than three times the regional income.

Although house prices in the southeast, including those in Bognor, are nine per cent lower than in 2008, statistics show they have gone up every month since last April.

And they have risen nearly four times faster than incomes in the past ten years.

"The economic climate is doing little to help West Sussex families looking for their own home, with affordability still a huge problem," says a report by the National Housing Federation, NHF, in a new booklet published this week entitled Home Truths 2009 '“ How the recession has increased housing need.

The bleak combination of poor housing, affordability, a growing population, rising unemployment, increasing repossessions and

continuing shortfalls in housing supply says the report means that 'more people are turning to the social housing sector to find a

suitable, affordable home'.

With a population in the Arun district of more than 146,600, more than 17,000 households in West Sussex are on waiting lists, an increase of 60 per cent in the past five years.

Arun is also the second-highest district in the southeast with the largest number of second homes in the country.

With 2.2 per cent of home owners with second homes, the country-wide figure is up by 25 per cent to almost 44,750 in 2008.

That, said the report, 'presents a significant challenge to the local economy, testing the viability of many local shops and services to breaking point'.

The NHF claims the housing supply is too low and the southeast needs to build between 38,000 and 53,800 new homes each year to 2031.

It is calling on the government to take a number of steps to increase the building of new high-quality social housing.

But there is a mixed reaction from one local estate agent towards the latest figures Richard Longhurst, manager of Henry Adams Estate Agents in Bognor, said with one-bedroom flats in the town selling for between 95,000 to 100,000, the agents had experienced an 'unexpected but very prosperous year'.

"The market gained momentum in the spring and exceeded our expectations following a pretty dire 2008.

"We are surprised the market seems to have recovered so quickly, but has been dampened with the winter period and there is talk of a double dip in the recession," added Mr Longhurst.

And he admitted there 'weren't too many true first-time buyers out there and gone are the days of 100 per cent mortgages'.

Many first-time buyers, he said, were either being gifted or borrowing money from their parents.

And Mr Longhurst concluded many of the first-time buyer properties in the town were being bought up by investors for buy to let.

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