Single people earning an average wage face an uphill struggle to get on the housing ladder in the Netherlands.

Only 1.1% of the homes currently for sale fall within their price range unless they have savings to invest, according to latest calculations by mortgage adviser De Hypotheker.

A person earning €41,000 can borrow a maximum of €171,000 backed by the national mortgage guarantee. The same applies to couples or families living off a single wage.

The average price of a home, excluding newbuild properties, was €413,900 in July, and despite prices falling by 5.5% in the last year, the choice available to middle income earners has improved only fractionally.

In Amsterdam, average earners are effectively shut out of the market, with not one of the properties up for sale falling within their budget range.

Dual income households have more choice after banks changed their calculation methods to give more weight to the lesser income. Two people earning a combined €72,000 are able to borrow €339,000, based on a 10-year mortgage with an interest rate of 4.3%.

That gives them a choice of 10% of the homes on sale in Amsterdam, one in six in Eindhoven, a quarter in Utrecht and one-third of properties in The Hague and Rotterdam.

Around the provinces, two-income households can afford half the homes for sale in Groningen, 40% in Limburg and one-third of houses in Friesland, Drenthe and Limburg.

Single earners have the most choice in Groningen, where 7% of homes are affordable to middle earners, compared to just 0.2% in Utrecht and one in 1,000 homes in Flevoland.

“The prospects on the housing market for single people with a modal income have hardly improved in recent years,” Mark de Rijke, commercial director of De Hypotheker, said. “Although average incomes have risen, this has been effectively wiped out by the increase in mortgage interest rates.”