First-time buyer completions see monthly rise in February

First-time buyer completions in February 2015 increased by 10.5 per cent in comparison to the previous month but were down by 5.8 per cent on the year.

The number of transactions in February reached 21,000, according to the latest First Time Buyer Opinion Barometer from Your Move and Reeds Rains.

Meanwhile, the average purchase price of first-time buyer properties was £143,767 in February, 0.8 per cent higher than a year ago.

First-time buyer deposits averaged £25,080 in February, 1.5 per cent higher than £24,721 a year before, despite additional support for higher LTV borrowers in the form of Help to Buy.

However, the latest Mortgage Monitor from e.surv revealed a recent uptick in house purchase approvals to borrowers with smaller deposits. Borrowers with deposits worth 15 per cent or less of their property’s value accounted for the largest portion of house purchase lending in five months in February.

Adrian Gill, director of estate agents Your Move and Reeds Rains, comments: “First-time buyers came back to the market in force in February, and mortgage lending data suggests this revival will carry through into the next few months. Wages are recovering, just as inflation has fallen to zero for the first time in decades, helped by cut-price fuel costs. Many buyers are feeling richer as a result, and they are looking to take advantage of cheap mortgage rates now, before prices have the chance to climb higher.”

The average first-time buyer in the UK is aged 30 and has an annual income of £33,100. This compares to an average age of 31 years and earnings of £46,200 annually for London and the South East, according to the February figures.

The average purchase price paid by first-time buyers in London was £300,354 in the three months to February 2015, while Northern Ireland was the cheapest region at an average of £96,068.