First-time buyers forced to group together to purchase their first home
Almost two-thirds of people buying their first homes have joined forces in an attempt to get on the property ladder, new research has found.
The research, which was gathered by Halifax, unveiled that 63% of first-time buyer mortgages taken our between January and December 2023 were in joint names between two or more individuals.
To collect the data, the leading UK bank analysed their own statistics as well as information from Lloyd’s Bank and the Bank of Scotland – part of the same group.
From the research, Halifax claimed one of the reasons people are grouping together for mortgages is because buyers are facing serious pressures trying to save for a deposit whilst the cost-of-living continues to climb.
Against this backdrop, new figures, that were published on Wednesday 31st January, by Nationwide displayed that the average UK house price has increased by 0.7% month-on-month in January as the outlook for the property market looked ‘a little more positive’.
However, prices of homes are still 02% lower than this time last year.
Nationwide’s chief economist, Robert Gardner, said: ‘There have been some encouraging signs for potential buyers recently with mortgage rates continuing to trend down.’
In addition, the latest figures from Moneyfacts, the financial information service, show that the average rate on a two-year fixed deal has dropped to 5.56%, compared with 5.9% at the start of the year.
Although this news has surfaced as the Bank of England have recently made the decision to retain interest rates at 5.25%, meaning mortgage rates will remain high, if officials eventually decide to bring down interest rates too, this should give sellers even more confidence and ease the pressure on affordability.
Image: Kelly Sikkema
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