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FTBs 'better off' up north?

Friday, March 19, 2010

Catherine Deshayes

First-time buyers in the north of England were the youngest and paid the smallest deposits compared with other areas of the UK in 2009, lenders say.

People buying their first home were aged 27 on average in the north of England and in Yorkshire and Humberside. Those in the North paid an average deposit of 19%, the figures showed.

First-time buyers were oldest on average in Greater London at 30, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said.

Deposits

The mortgage market is a much tougher place for first-time buyers without significant savings than it was a few years ago.

The availability of mortgages has dropped and while some 100% mortgages were available until early 2008, the average deposit was generally between 20% and 25% in 2009, the CML said.

The stamp duty threshold was at its temporary threshold of £175,000, rather than £125,000, throughout 2009 in a government bid to stimulate the housing market.

The CML said that the stamp duty change was more of a concession in some parts of the UK than in others.

Some 39% of first-time buyers in East Anglia were exempt from paying stamp duty in 2009 because of the concession - the highest proportion.

In Northern Ireland, properties sold under the £175,000 threshold increased from 62% of first-time buyers in 2008 to 86% in 2009.

Home-movers

The average home-mover was aged 32 in the East Midlands in 2009 - the youngest in the UK. The oldest average home-mover was in the north of England, at 40 years old.

These home-movers paid the smallest average deposit in the north of England at 29%, with the highest in the South West of England at 45%.

"The year [2010] started on a subdued note but ended much higher, leaving the industry with a greater degree of optimism for the mortgage market in 2010," the CML said.

The CML also said the proportion of people who were homeowners was likely to fall in the coming years.

It said many people would instead be tenants, mainly renting in the private sector, owing to a shortage in housing supply, changing consumer preferences and affordability pressures.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk