In July and August transactions levels stood at 30,200, 27.2% above levels in May 2015.
Such has been the recovery after the election that June to August has been the strongest summer for first-time buyers in eight years, with almost 90,000 sales in total.
Adrian Gill, director of estate agents Your Move and Reeds Rains, said: “An end-of-summer surge in first-time buyer activity is in full swing.
“With May’s general election a distant memory, many first-time buyers are basking in the political stability that comes with a majority government and a fixed-term parliament.
“They are also benefitting from a British economy that is beginning to roar. As real-term wages rise and job security is increasingly taken as a given, renters are feeling, in ever larger numbers, that they have ability to overcome cost caveats and turn their property-owning dreams into reality.”
In August the typical first-time buyer deposit grew by 9% to £26,741. As a result deposits jumped from consuming 63.7% of an average first-time buyer’s income in May to 68.5% in August.
The average first-time buyer property price stood at £153,999 in August – an increase of 2.9% since May and1.4% since July.
Gill added: “Rising deposit costs and average house prices – while hardly a first-time buyer dream – are encouraging economic signs.
“They point to rising real-terms pay and overall consumer confidence. Similarly, first-time buyers may grumble about the Bank of England sending out increasingly firm signals that a rate rise is on the horizon.
“But we are not there yet – the average mortgage rate is continuing to fall, albeit at a more cautious pace than in recent months – and the number of high LTV loans available is still on an upward trajectory.
“This means it is an opportune time for first-time buyers to bid farewell to renting and get a place of their own.”
