Property price falls have led to a "significant" improvement in housing affordability, according to Britain's biggest mortgage lender.

November saw the house price to earnings ratio, a key measure of affordability, drop to 4.56, following house price falls of more than 16% during the previous 12 months.

The Halifax said this was the lowest level for the ratio for more than five years and well down on the peak of 5.84 reached in July last year. It also helped to bring the ratio closer to its long-term average of four, the group said.

The number of local authorities where the average first-time buyer home is affordable for a single person on average earnings has trebled as a result of the fall in house prices, from just 4% in 2007 to 14% now.

The level of affordability for people buying their first home also improved in seven of the UK's 12 regions during the year.

In Scotland, which saw one of the biggest rises in affordability, 67% of local authorities were now affordable for a single first-time buyer on average earnings, up from 30% the previous year.

Yorkshire and the Humber also saw a big increase in local authorities that were affordable for first-time buyers, rising from none in 2007 to 40% at the end of this year.

However, even though house prices have fallen steeply during the past 18 months, there was no increase in the number of areas that were affordable in London, the South West, West Midlands, Wales and Northern Ireland, where the typical property bought by a first-time buyer remains unaffordable for someone on average earnings in all local authorities.

Martin Ellis, Halifax chief economist, said: "There has been a marked improvement in housing affordability in many parts of the UK.

"First-time buyers, in particular, are benefiting, especially outside the south of England and the Midlands. We expect this trend to continue in 2009."

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