Only a tiny proportion of homes for sale in parts of England are affordable to average buyers, Shelter has claimed.

It says that just 0.3% of properties for sale in London – equating to 86 homes – are affordable, while in the south-east region, just 4.2% of properties are affordable.

In Exeter, Devon, out of 553 homes for sale, only eight were described as affordable.

By contrast, in the north, 62.7% of homes on the market  were found to be affordable.

Shelter analysed more than 325,000 properties for sale on Zoopla on the basis of purchasers having 18% deposits and being able to borrow 3.4 times their incomes.

Campbell Robb,  chief executive of Shelter, said: “It’s clear we’re not just facing a housing shortage: it’s a full-blown drought.”

* In the London borough of Newham, most ex-council homes that were bought under Right to Buy are now owned by private landlords.

John East, Newham Council’s director of housing, told the Chartered Institute of Housing conference that council houses had been sold to tenants for as little as £25,000.

He said: “Our council housing stock is starting to diminish quite rapidly, but the people who are buying them aren’t living in them.

“They sold them and those properties go into private rent.”