Sharp decline in first-time buyers
October 17, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Mortgages
Britain has seen a steep decrease in the number of people investing in property for the first time.
The number of first-time buyers has gone down by 20 per cent since March this year, according to research by YouGov.
Partly blamed on mounting house prices and inflated interest rates, the reduction is also put down to a swelling of the buy-to-let market and a decrease in the properties available for purchase.
Head of mortgages at moneysupermarket.com, Louise Cuming, commented: “The past month has been fraught with uncertainty and lenders have begun acting independently of the Bank of England in terms of rate pricing.
“It’s not surprising some potential first-time buyers are getting cold feet and steering clear of home ownership.”
She added that figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders shows the proportion of first-time buyers to have dipped six per cent against total borrowing in the first six months of this year compared to the same time-frame last year.
The website reported that a total of 56 per cent of homeowners have a fixed-rate mortgage whereas over a quarter choose to go for a fixed-rate of just three or five years.
