The average salary required for a first-time buyer has risen by 18 percent in the past three years.
Figures from the research company Hometrack have shown that only three out of 20 major cities have become more affordable since 2015.
Home ownership is becoming a distant dream for many young people, where a first-time buyer needs to earn £58,826 a year to afford the average property in Bristol.
With higher salaries required to buy homes, millennials are likely to live in and raise families in rented homes. Research from the Resolution Foundation thinktank suggested that one in three millennials are unlikely to own their own home.
According to the Hometrack figures, the average salary required to buy a house across all 20 cities included in the study is more than double the median annual wage, £28,677, for a full-time employee in the country.
Whilst affordability has slightly improved in London, the income required to buy an average property is £84,250.
The average wage needed to buy a home has also fallen in Cambridge, Oxford and Aberdeen as wages have increased and house prices stagnated or dropped.
The average salary to buy an average home in Manchester has jumped by over £6,500 to £34,770.
Cities with the highest salaries required to buy properties are London, Cambridge, Oxford, Bournemouth, Bristol, Portsmouth and Bristol.
Richard Donnell, Hometrack’s insight director, said that higher interest rates from the Bank of England could also make it harder for more people to buy a home.
“Higher prices and a further drift upwards in mortgage rates means that these affordability pressures will continue to steadily build,” he said.