Number of first-time buyers leaps to highest level since the financial crisis


Bumper numbers of first-time buyers clambered onto the property ladder last year, forking out more than the average household income to do so, new figures suggest. More first-time buyers bought a home in 2016 than in any year since 2007, before the global financial crisis hit, research from Halifax shows.

Halifax says those purchasing their first property paid an average of £205,170 last year, the highest on record and seven per cent higher than 2015. As the cost of housing has increased, first-time buyers have also been taking out longer mortgages. In 2006, just 36 per cent had mortgages lasting beyond the traditional 25-year period. In 2016, 60 per cent of mortgages were for 25 years or more.

Halifax used a range of sources for the research, including its own housing statistics database and figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders and the Office for National Statistics. It shows that 335,750 are estimated to have stepped onto the property ladder for the first time last year. This is the highest figure since 359,900 in 2007 and marks the third year in a row that the number has topped 300,000.

Halifax says the number of first-time buyers in 2016 was 75 per cent higher than a low point in 2009, but 17 per cent below a pre-crisis peak of 402,800 in 2006. More aspiring first-time buyers also have to factor stamp duty into their costs.

Less than a third of first-time purchases in 2016 were below the £125,000 stamp duty threshold. This share was 45 per cent in 2013. The average age of a first-time buyer is 30, ranging from 27 in Carlisle in Cumbria and Torfaen in South Wales to 34 in places such as Slough in Berkshire and the London boroughs of Barnet and Ealing.

If you are looking to buy your first property, call Bowson Estates on 0191 2128100 ext. for our friendly advice on finding the right property for you.

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117 St George's Terrace
Jesmond, Newcastle
NE2 2DN

0191 212 8100
info@bowsonproperty.co.uk

Monday - Friday09:00 - 17:30
Saturday09:00 - 16:00
SundayClosed