First-Time Buyers Face Tough Times! phill

Despite softening home values across the UK, first-time buyers (FTBs) are finding it ever harder to get onto the property ladder, according to a new report by Genworth Financial.

The report found that the average 10% deposit needed by FTBs is now £18,600, whereas in London it is £29,700.

Four-fifths of FTBs under 30 bought ‘with assistance’, typically from their parents, and in the last four years the overall number of FTBs has fallen by at least 300,000.

Genworth’s president of mortgage insurance Europe Angel Mas comments: “The barrier to home ownership appears to be widening, with increasing numbers of first-time buyers excluded – a shocking 100,000 year-on-year between 2006 and 2009.”

What Angel Mas may find even more shocking is that a series of property websites, starting with www.homemove.co.uk and then www.themovechannel.com named his company as ‘Glenworth’ (instead of Genworth), proving that they had not done their homework!

And incidentally, the decline in FTBs is not necessarily down to the size of deposit needed, but could just as easily be caused by tighter mortgage conditions (which apply to everyone) and the falling value of property, which puts buyers off across the board.

Those FTBs who are really serious about getting to the next stage should flock to the Grand Connaught Rooms in London this Saturday (23 October) for the First-Time Buyer Home Show, where they will find 50 stands devoted to affordable housing, legal advice, developers, independent financial advisers, estate agents and interior designers.

And keep a close eye on the spending cuts being announced this week, because they may have an impact on the various FTB schemes currently in operation. So you may want to act quickly to take advantage of something that is about to be abolished...

Original comment can be found at: http://www.theadvisory.co.uk/quick-house-sale-blog/2010/10/first-time-home-bu...

via Posterize