{"id":2932,"date":"2017-09-27T15:06:02","date_gmt":"2017-09-27T15:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poseidon-gp.com\/property\/?p=2932"},"modified":"2017-09-27T15:06:02","modified_gmt":"2017-09-27T15:06:02","slug":"why-the-tide-could-be-turning-for-first-time-buyers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poseidon-gp.com\/property\/why-the-tide-could-be-turning-for-first-time-buyers\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the tide could be turning for first-time buyers"},"content":{"rendered":"

First-time buyers are gaining an edge over buy-to-let investors when it comes to buying property, yet more are anxious about securing a mortgage.<\/p>\n

First-time buyers are feeling\u00a0more optimistic<\/strong>\u00a0as house price growth stalls and competition from buy-to-let investors falls away.<\/p>\n

While a\u00a0third (33%) of people trying to get on to the property ladder still think buying a home will be ‘extremely difficult’, that number is\u00a0down from 39%\u00a0a year ago.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the proportion who see rising house prices as being their ‘biggest obstacle’ has dropped to 27%, compared with 37% in 2016.<\/p>\n

However,\u00a0first-time buyers are\u00a0more anxious<\/strong>\u00a0about their ability to get a mortgage than they were previously, with\u00a012%<\/strong>\u00a0citing this as a major issue, up from just 5% last year, according to specialist\u00a0lender Aldermore.<\/p>\n

The bank’s commercial director of mortgages, Charles McDowell said: \u201cAlthough property prices remain a hurdle, slower house price increases have given a glimmer of hope to those trying to get on the ladder for the first time<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The research comes as figures from UK Finance show that first-time buyers borrowed \u00a35bn in July,\u00a014%<\/strong>\u00a0more than they were advanced a year earlier, although slightly down on June\u2019s total.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The pace at which house prices are rising has\u00a0slowed significantly during the past year<\/a><\/strong>, increasing at an annual rate of just 2.1% in August, according to Nationwide.<\/p>\n

This slowdown has provided potential first-time buyers with a bit of breathing space to raise a\u00a0bigger<\/em>\u00a0deposit without having to worry that they risk being priced out of the market if they delay making a purchase.<\/p>\n

At the same time, a\u00a0raft of tax changes\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>has led to a steep fall in the number of buy-to-let landlords buying homes.<\/p>\n

Landlords and first-time buyers typically purchase the same types of property, so the fall in activity from investors means those buying their first property face less competition.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While the slowdown in house price growth and the fall in competition is a positive for first-time buyers, they still face significant challenges to get on to the property ladder.<\/p>\n

Data from UK finance showed that the typical first-time buyer needed to borrow\u00a03.6 times their annual income<\/strong>\u00a0to buy a home. It said they were advanced an average of \u00a3139,000 and put down a 15% deposit, or around\u00a0\u00a324,529<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

But record low mortgage rates mean monthly repayments only accounted for an average 17.4% of their takehome pay.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The majority of would-be first-time buyers are still having to make considerable sacrifices in order to get on to the property ladder.<\/p>\n

Three out of five people are currently living with family or friends or would consider doing so in order to save money, according to the Aldermore research.<\/p>\n

A third of first-time buyers also think it will take them five or more years to get on to the property ladder.<\/p>\n

The study found that 26% of people think building more homes would help those trying to buy a property, while 25% would like to see the introduction of a special stamp duty-free allowance for first-time buyers and 24% think better mortgage products should be introduced.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Top 3 takeaways<\/strong><\/h3>\n
    \n
  • First-time buyers are feeling more optimistic as house price growth stalls and competition from buy-to-let investors falls away<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
      \n
    • A third of people trying to get on to the property ladder think buying a home will be extremely difficult, down from 39% 12 months ago<\/li>\n
    • The proportion who see rising house prices as being their biggest obstacle has dropped to 27%, compared with 37% in 2016<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      First-time buyers are gaining an edge over buy-to-let investors when it comes to buying property, yet more are anxious about securing a mortgage. First-time buyers are feeling\u00a0more optimistic\u00a0as house price growth stalls and competition from buy-to-let investors falls away. While a\u00a0third (33%) of people trying to get on to the property ladder still think buying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9PjAq-Li","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poseidon-gp.com\/property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poseidon-gp.com\/property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poseidon-gp.com\/property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poseidon-gp.com\/property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poseidon-gp.com\/property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/poseidon-gp.com\/property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poseidon-gp.com\/property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poseidon-gp.com\/property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poseidon-gp.com\/property\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}