Have you ever wondered what the average first time buyer mortgage looked like? Or perhaps you are now considering getting on the property ladder and are investigating how much of a deposit you’ll need? Well, the average first time buyer’s deposit in Wales is now around £17,000.
How Much is the Average First Time Buyer Mortgage in Wales?
According to the Halifax First-Time Buyer Review, 47% of all house purchases made with a mortgage in the first half of 2017 were made by first time buyers. The report found the average house price paid by these new homeowners in Wales was £136,103 with an average deposit of £17,193 (around 13% of the purchase price).
This is considerably cheaper than the UK capital. In London, a typical deposit costs £106,577 which equates to 26% of the average price of a home here. The lowest deposits in the country were seen in Northern Ireland where the average was £16,457. In Scotland, first time buyers required £21,565 on average.
Brent in London was found to be the least affordable area in the country for first time buyers with the average home costing £459,499, which is 12.5 times average earnings there. Whereas Stirling in Scotland was the cheapest with a home costing £136,181, around 2.9 times local average earnings.
Across the entire country, there were just under 163,000 first time buyers in the first six months of 2017, which Halifax says is just 15% lower than the peak seen in the last boom in 2006. The report also revealed that 38% of first time buyer mortgages were for people aged 25 to 35 in 2007, but by 2016 this figure had grown to 56%.
Getting Young People onto the Property Ladder
One possible reason behind these healthy statistics could be government schemes such as Help to Buy. In 2007, 36% of all home purchases made with a mortgage in Great Britain were made by first time buyers. A decade later, this figure has grown to 47% (prior to the launch of Help to Buy in April 2013, this was at 44%).
As we have completed 23% of all Help to Buy transactions in Wales, we have done some of our own reporting on this subject.
In our report ‘Help-to-Buy Statistics: 5,000 Homes Were Bought in Wales Using Help to Buy’, we used government statistics to discover Newport and Flintshire have seen the highest number of Help to Buy purchases made in Wales to date. And the most common type of property bought using the scheme was a three-bedroom home.
Considering Buying Soon?
Whether you’ve found your dream property and are ready to move forward or are simply doing some research whilst saving your deposit, find out more about our conveyancing solicitors services online or get in touch to speak to a member of our friendly team.
