Want to buy your first London home? You’ll need to save for 30 years

No typos there, you read that right.

According to housing charity Shelter, single buyers would need to save for 29 years to buy their first London home while couples with a child would need to save for 26 years.

Elsewhere in England, couples with no children in their twenties would need to save for more than six-and-a-half years.

A couple with a child in England would have to save up for 12 years to buy a home.

Shelter’s chief executive, Campbell Robb, said: “Homeownership used to be within most people’s reach, but the rising shortage of affordable homes has pushed house prices up so high that for millions of young people it’s now just a fantasy, however how hard they work or save.

“Parents are right to be worried. The reality is that unless we get a grip on the housing shortage soon, children today could spend decades paying out dead money in expensive rents, or living at home well into adulthood with little hope of planning for their own families.”

Conducted by Liverpool Economics, the report looked into how long it would take for a 20-something with no savings to save for a deposit worth 20% of an average house. The average prices taken into account were based on current and projected prices and the cost of living, in every county and borough in the country.

On the basis of these figures, the charity has built a tool that can tell you how long you need to save for a home where you live. Take a look at the tool here.