First-time Buyers Are Getting Older

The difficulty in buying home has meant that first-time buyers are getting older, on average. Property website Rightmove has found that one in five of new house buyers are older than 35. Recent gains in the housing market and the expense of getting a mortgage has pushed the price of getting on the housing ladder out of reach of many young people.

The website’s survey showed that some 22% of first-time buyers are over 35, and further 51% are aged between 25 and 34. That leaves 27% in the age bracket under-25.

The research also found that 36% of first-time buyers remained living with their parents while they tried to save enough money for a deposit, while 49% were renting property, either on their own, wit a partner or with other people.

While 25% of new buyers said they had saved the money for a deposit on their own, 13% did admit that they had relied on parents to help them out with deposit money, and 2% said that their parents were acting as mortgage guarantors. Another 10% said that they had borrowed the full amount of the property value for the mortgage. There were another 4% who said they were buying a property through a shared ownership scheme.

People remain keen to buy their own property, even if prices were to shoot up again. Around 43% of current first-time buyers said they would still look to but their own home if property prices soared, but a higher figure, 46%, said it would be likely to hinder their chances of buying a home.

However, many people believe that house prices will not rise this year: 40% said that prices would not rise in 2008. Some 38% said they though prices would rise, and 23% weren’t sure.

Rightmove’s survey was carried between September and December 2007