A HOUSING charity says its research has revealed the extent of Harlow’s housing shortage.

Shelter claims that just eight per cent of homes for sale in the town are affordable for a typical family hoping to get on the first rung of the property ladder.

The homeless charity Shelter looked at all of the properties for sale on a single day in Harlow and compared the asking prices with the typical mortgage offer for families, couples and single people on average local wages.

The figures should that a couple without children earning a joint income of £47,559, the average income according to the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, would be able to, with a 20 per cent deposit, afford a £197,964 home.

According to Shelter, just 26 of the 342 homes for sale in Harlow would fall in this price bracket.

Previous research commissioned by Shelter showed that young families in the region face almost 12 years of saving before they can afford a deposit.

The research also found that just nine of 381 properties would be affordable for a single person but for couples without children 40 per cent of the homes available were affordable.