If the prices of food had risen in line with house prices, the average family's weekly grocery bill would be around £420, according to housing charity Shelter.
To highlight the extent of house price inflation, the charity has analysed the cost of a typical shopping trolley of groceries for a family of four if prices had risen at the same rate as house prices in the last 40 years.
In 1971, the average home cost £5,632; by 2008, that average had risen to £227,765. This is a multiplication of 40.44. Shelter has applied this calculation to today's prices of groceries like eggs, cornflakes, washing powder, chicken and coffee for their advertising campaign.
If food and other essential items had risen at the same rate, Shelter found that a pint of milk would cost £2.43, a chicken £47.51 and a jar of coffee £20.22.
It would mean the average family paying around three times as much for their weekly food shop as they do today. The average home costs around seven times the average UK salary.
"These calculations show just how out of line the cost of housing has become - yet we seem to have just accepted these inflated prices as normal in a way we wouldn't with anything else,” said Shelter's director of policy and campaigns Kay Boycott.
"Housing affects so many areas of people's lives and high housing costs are increasingly influencing the choices people make about how they live their lives.
“In this election year, it's vital that all political parties make housing a top priority so that future generations are not held back by the cost of housing.
