HOUSING misery got 10 per cent worse last year with official statistics showing another big spike in the cost of homes.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed the scale of Britain’s crisis yesterday with figures showing the cost of an “average” property at a record £265,000 — up by a tenth in the year to June.

To buy one an individual would need to be earning around £48,000 and have £12,000 in the bank before qualifying for a mortgage.

But the picture was even worse in London, where owning a home is still the preserve of the rich with an eye-watering 19.3 per cent rise to half a million pounds.

Once the capital and south-east England were removed from the equation prices still rose by 6.3 per cent.

The ONS figures pile more misery on millions of people stuck in overpriced rental accommodation in a sector which has not been regulated since free-market zealot Margaret Thatcher scrapped price caps that had been in place since World War I.

Figures released by property firm HomeLet on Monday suggested that rents have also ballooned by more than 8 per cent in the past year across Britain.

In London they averaged £1,295 a month — swallowing up the entire wage of an individual on £18,500 a year.

Housing charity Shelter described the figures as “yet another blow for people across the country desperate to put down roots and create a stable home”