Despite ever increasing house price growth, there at least appears to be some joy this Christmas for those looking to get on the property ladder.
The Building Society Association’s final Property Tracker of 2015 has revealed that purchasing a property is now easier than it has been at any point over the last six years.
According to the BSA, raising a deposit to buy a property is less of a barrier for first-time buyers than it has been since 2009.
While raising a deposit is still considered to be the biggest barrier to buying property in the UK, the proportion of people selecting this fell to 52% in December, down from 59% in September.
The BSA said that this may reflect the increase in lending in the mortgage market and the government’s recent announcements on housebuilding.
From September to December, the proportion of people who see access to mortgage finance as a barrier to home ownership fell from 41% to 38%. The affordability of monthly mortgage repayments fell from 35% to 33% and lack of job security is now at 26%, down from 28%.
Stamp duty increased as a barrier to property purchase, up to 13% from 10% in September. This most likely reflects the stamp duty changes for buy-to-let and second homes announced in the Autumn Statement, the BSA said.
Paul Broadhead, BSA head of mortgage policy, said the figures showed consumers were feeling reasonably optimistic about getting on or moving up the property ladder.
He said: “Awareness of government schemes, such as Help to Buy and the new Help to Buy London, plus the availability of higher loan-to-value mortgages, helps to bring choice and competition to the market. Housing generally needs to remain a top priority for the government.
“Now is the time to focus on building more homes, supported by appropriate investment in infrastructure, in order to begin to address the long term imbalance of housing supply with demand. Innovative mortgage products and intermediate forms of tenure must also be championed – not just by building societies – but by all lenders, the regulators and government.
“This will go some way to delivering a sustainable housing market which caters to the needs of a wide range of credit worthy consumers, not just those with ‘vanilla’ borrowing requirements.”
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