London homebuyers now need to find an additional £35,500 in deposit compared with the pre-2022 mortgage era, simply to maintain the same monthly repayment burden as borrowing costs have surged, according to new Financial Times analysis. The finding crystallises a shift that has been building for three years: with average two-year fixed mortgage rates climbing from around 2% in late 2021 to hovering near 5% today, buyers must either stretch their income multiples, accept smaller properties, or plug the gap with substantially larger cash deposits. For a capital where the average property price sits above £530,000, that £35,500 shortfall is not a rounding error — it represents nearly a full year's post-tax salary for a typical professional couple, and it is reshaping who can realistically buy in London at all.