I'm also in the UK (Edinburgh - it's not quite SE prices but not far off it), and buying solo would be difficult, but buying with two incomes made things much much simpler. Its likely that sole income buyers are going to be priced out by couples, particular in the "nice" houses where the demand is. From a lenders perspective, a couple on 25k each vs a single earner on 60k, the couple is much less risky, their post-tax income is higher, less of a chance of a full default, living costs are split. They can be slightly more "generous" lending to couples, so it's likely that most of the nice properties fall just above the 2x 25k earner threshold (adjusted for whatever that is locally)