The UK was one of the few countries which experienced a rise in house prices in 2009. Some countries like Ireland, Spain and Central Europe experienced record falls of between 27 and 53% (according to RICS European Housing Review 2010)
However, the rise in house prices will come as little comfort for first time buyers based in the UK. Expensive house prices and the continuation of mortgage rationing means first time buyers are being asked for a record level of deposit before getting a mortgage.
The Council of Mortgage lenders state that the average first time deposit is £34,000 – equivalent to a full year’s salary. This is nearly triple the average deposit of three years ago, when the average deposit was a more manageable £12,000.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders predict that this trend of a large deposit is unlikely to change. Banks are still repairing their balance sheets (despite high profits from some such as Barclays) They also predict that home ownership rates are likely to fall. Home ownership rates have already fallen to 68%, after peaking at 71% in 2000.
Last month saw the first reported house price fall for 10 months. But, although prices may slip back a little this year, it is unlikely to solve the long term problem of supply shortages and expensive house prices.
Unsurprisingly 80% of first time buyers received help from their parents in getting their first deposit.
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I simply can’t believe that the average first time buyer has a deposit on their mortgage of £32k? I bought my first flat in May 2008 and didn’t manage to scrape anywhere near that amount together. Anyone who did manage a deposit of that size on their mortgage has done very well because if i was in that position when my mortgage renewal comes up in June I’d be able to get a much better rate!
Generous parents out there for sure.
I know, affordability is a distant memory. Owning a home in London in your 20′s is a dream for many it simply is out of the question. Scrapping stamp duty on property under 250k for first time buyers is not enough. Parents are increasingly being put under pressure to help out and many yougsters are being forced to stay at home for longer, where will it end?
in my case I relied very heavily on generous parents.
Since a teenager, I have worked hard and watched while the seeming unafordable £70,000 houses at the time, increased in value at a pace far beyond the rate my earnings and savings could ever afford. I have studied and gained skills/experiance in building and property related industry for 10 years and yet the opertuneties are not available to build a home! The land it self is priced as if the owners are due a third of the labour costs and a third of the true value of the finnished building, just to part with it. The mortgage arangments are not amicable enought to allow self building as a viable solution to anyone who doesn’t already own a home. Unfortunatly I cannot see how the prices can be sustained at the current value without considerable influence. Sooner or later the wider public, including individuals who happen to work in banks, will have to realise the truth, That either the state has to house people or opertunities for people to house them selves are needed. The value of a home is not reached by counting on the shortage and overpopulation of a country to pay dividens on an investment. It started because pensions schemes were discovered to be based on bubbles. The house prices reached what they did because of a bubble in percieved returns from mortgage lending. What will investors turn to next? And how long will it take things to recover when the reality dawns that there is simply not the monitary wealth in this country that we are lead to believe. Food, Water, Homes, Cloths, Education, Health, Comunication, Medicine, Creativity, Security. wealth is not just what you can extort from these broad topics but instead its the atainability of these things for all and the means for individuals to make exchanges (Trade) on a level playing field, based on differences in perception, preference or sercunstance. ‘Investment’ in its modern form, began with making this principle posible (ship building), however, without a sitainable existance being atainable on the wages of the ship builders and the crew, there will be no voyage and no great rewards.