As a matter of interest, what do you think an average salary is? It's a year old now, but the Guardian had an article detailing average UK salaries[1] and the median average household income for a couple in the UK is £44,200. That's not each, that's their total income. Do you really think a couple earning that much can afford a house 20 miles from the center of London? That's barely outside of the M25.
Average UK salary is £26K according to Google, so I just doubled that. So OK, I meant a couple who between them earn in total around £52K p.a. and can bring along a deposit of £50K (reduce the deposit by £3.50 for every £1 extra that they earn above £50K). That'll bring you to near enough £240K which is what I paid for a 2 bed house with a large garden.
Note the article is claiming you need to be on a six figure salary to live anywhere near London, which is a load of tosh.
That's the mean average though, and it assumes a standard Bell curve distribution - it's completely wrong and obfuscates the truth horribly. There are a lot more low income earners than high income earners. If you look at the Guardian article I linked to you'll see that ~70% of people in the UK earn less than £25k or less (all the adults in the seventh decile and below).
Note the article is claiming you need to be on a six figure salary to live anywhere near London, which is a load of tosh.
If you're not in a relationship where you can buy a house together I'd say you certainly need to be in at least the top 10% of earners (>£60,500). Sure, that's not a six-figure salary, but it indicates that the over-whelming majority of people have been priced out of London, which is the spirit of the article.
No, it is not the mean average, it is the median. You are quoting the wrong statistics - you are including part-timers, but he is talking of the median full-time earnings, which are actually 27.2k on average nationwide according to the ASHE. The median full-time salary in Greater London is 32.8k, and still 29.9k in the outer South East.
Of course your broader point still stands - in London you can only own a house if you earn in the top deciles, or if you inherit a house or get gifted a deposit by parents/grandparents who got lucky in the house price boom. The latter is the default way.
[1] http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/mar/25/uk-incomes-how-...