Property
Average first-time buyer deposit increases to over £57,000
Deposits are up £20,000 in London.
First-time buyer’s deposit increase by £10,000 reaching a record high across the country.
Getting on the property ladder for first-time buyers is notoriously difficult and now, they’re going to have to find an additional £10,000 compared to last year.
According to Halifax bank house price index, the average needed to put down as a deposit for a house in 2020 across the country has now risen 23% from last year to a whopping £57,278.
Fuelled by high demand in the second half of 2020 pushed by the break in the market from the pandemic and the stamp duty holiday, average house prices in the UK are now £253,374.
For those in London, properties are now £20,000 more expensive than in 2019 with deposits up by around £20,000 too.
Despite these staggering figures, the findings from Halifax show that first-time buyers accounted for half of all home purchase loans in the year, down from 51% in 2019.
Last year there were 304,657 first time buyers the lowest this figure has been since 2015.
Russell Galley, managing director, Halifax, said: “Whilst these figures confirm the almost inevitable fall in the overall number of first-time buyers in 2020 – with the entire housing market effectively shuttered during the first national lockdown – they also underline just how strong the bounce back was in the second half of the year.
“Despite the obvious challenges presented by soaring house prices, not least the need to raise an even bigger deposit, first-time buyers still accounted for half of all home purchases, a reassuring statistic given their overall importance to the market.
“However, with the economic impact of the pandemic likely to be felt most keenly by the young and those in lower-paid jobs, the need to prioritise improved housing availability and affordability for all those looking to make that first step on to the property ladder becomes ever greater.”