The price of houses in Kingston has gone up by 80 per cent in a decade, but the increase is less than neighbouring Wandsworth.

The soaring prices are lagging well behind wages, which are estimated to only have gone up by 29 per cent.

Figures released by the National Housing Federation (NHF) showed the cost of housing is outstripping people’s income across the country.

Pippa Mackie, chief executive of Kingston’s Citizens Advice Bureau, said she thought the disparity between property prices and wages would lead to more people renting and less people being able to achieve the dream of owning their own home.

She said: “There is that national picture that has been painted of a generation that will be in rented accommodation whereas the last generation might have reasonably expected to own their own property.”

In Kingston the cost of an average house rose from 11.4 to 15.9 times the annual income between 2001 and 2011, according to the NHF’s report, and the average house price is now £364,242.

Outside Kingston, house price rises have been equally bleak for new buyers, with Richmond’s property prices rising by 90 per cent in the same 10-year period, and Wandsworth’s by 100 per cent.

Andrew Mair, Kingston’s citizens’ advice landlord and tenant housing expert, said:

“That disparity between wages and house prices will put demand on social homes and on the private rental sector.

“If you are an owner occupier you have a certain level of security as if your income falls you might get into difficulty with your mortgage and may eventually lose your home, but if you are in the rented sector there is very little security of tenure and if the landlord wants the property back he can have it.”

Nationally, house prices have risen 94 per cent while salaries grew by only 29 per cent in the past 10 years.

The NHF said unless more affordable homes were built to match demand the problem would only get worse.