Market reports continually tell us that the average age of first-time buyers is pretty high these days, that mortgage lenders require significant deposits and that first rung property prices remain inaccessibly high.
Commenting Helen Adams, managing director of the on-line advice centre, said: “Young people today living in rented property are facing great difficulties taking the first step towards buying their own home. One of the problems is that one and two bedroom flats and houses are the favoured target of landlords, thereby pushing these properties out of reach price-wise and first-time buyers are worried about the effect of not being able to afford their first home.”
The lack of access to first-time buyers to the first rung of their home-ownership ladder means that there is a concern that more families will simply not be home owners and may never be. This would cause a divide in the nation between property owners and property renters.
The poll goes on to quiz whether enough is being done to help first-time buyers and it reveals that 89% do not feel enough is being done to help them.
Adams continued: “With the launching and withdrawal of various schemes over the last few years it’s easy to be confused, but the government does offer shared equity and shared ownership first-time buyer schemes across the country to key workers and those households with an annual income of below £60,000. Outside that, help with the deposit should be sought from parents or grandparents if at all possible.”
In some areas lease-option or rent-to-buy schemes are also offered to first-time buyers by their local HomeBuy agents which can be a good option particularly in a rising market.
In addition, a small number of mortgage lenders are now becoming a little creative with their lending to first-time buyers and this is an indication that subject to the risk of the loan being shared with another party, often parents, some lenders are at least dipping their toe into the water.
