Nearly three quarters of first-time buyers successfully completed on mortgage applications via brokers in the final three months of 2017.
This is a huge rise on the previous year when, during the same period, just over a half of first timers completed on their mortgage through an intermediary.
The figures released today by the IMLA Mortgage Market Tracker showed approvals in that period were also on the rise from the previous year.
IMLA data revealed nine in 10 first-time buyers (88%) secured a mortgage offer in the period from October to December 2017. This has soared from 73% in the same period in 2016.
IMLA said this success for first-time buyers is down to improving product availability, low interest rates and strong competition between lenders.
What’s more, the cooling of house price growth and the continuation of the Help to Buy initiative have also had a positive impact.
It would appear that while access to mortgage finance had improved greatly for first timers, repayments remained stable compared to borrowers’ income.
Kate Davies, executive director of IMLA, said: “First-time buyers have benefited from widely-available and competitively-priced deals, even before the extra confidence boost of the Stamp Duty exemption announced in the Autumn Budget.”
She added: “It is encouraging to see mortgage repayments have remained stable even as more first-time buyers make the step up onto the housing ladder.
“With the Bank of England base rate on a slow upward trajectory, lenders remain firmly focused on rigorous affordability tests so that borrowers do not overstretch themselves to achieve their ambitions.”
