The number of first-time buyers in the first six months of 2014 reached the highest level since 2007, according to new research from Halifax.
An estimated 144,500 people bought their first house in the first half of the year, up 25 per cent on the same period last year.
This is the highest total for the same six-month period since 2007, when there were 181,500 first-time buyers.
First-time buyer numbers also rose by more than the total number of home-movers (20 per cent over the same period).
That puts their share of the home purchase market at 46 per cent in the first half of the year, up from 44 per cent in the first half of 2013.
Craig McKinlay, mortgages director at Halifax, commented: “The resurgence in the number of first-time buyers getting on to the housing ladder has been buoyed by improving economic conditions, rising employment levels as well as government schemes such as Help to Buy, which have helped more first-time buyers on to the housing ladder.”
First-time buyers’ purchases
Sixty per cent of all first-time buyer purchases in the first half of 2014 were above the £125,000 stamp duty threshold, up from 51 per cent a year earlier.
Nationally 48 per cent of home purchases by first-time buyers were between £125,000 and £250,000, up from 44 per cent from a year earlier.
The average first-time buyer’s deposit in the second quarter of 2014 was £31,129, up 9 per cent compared to the same period last year (£28,463).
First-time buyers were spending 31 per cent of their disposable earnings on mortgage payments in the first half of 2014. This is substantially below of the peak level of 47 per cent in the first half of 2007 and below the long-term average of 34 per cent.
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