First-time buyers are now paying £209,000 to get on the housing ladder

First-time buyers are now paying £209,000 to get on the housing ladder

First-time buyers are now paying £209,000 to get on the housing ladder – a 21% hike over the last ten years.

Despite this, first-time buyer numbers have hit the highest in the decade since 2008, and first-timers now account for 51% of the market.

However, Halifax points out that Help to Buy has been a significant factor in first-time buyers now getting on the housing ladder.

According to Halifax, a first-time buyer in London pays an average of £419,608, followed by someone getting on the housing ladder in the south east, who pays an average of £272,632.

These house prices are up 48% and 37% respectively since 2008.

Halifax also says first-time buyers are putting down record deposits – nationally, the average is £33,127, an increase of 71% from the £19,364 ten years ago.

In London, the average first-time deposit is £114,952, compared with £38,335 in 2008.

Despite this number crunching,  the number of first-time buyers in the first half of this year rose to 175,500, compared with 171,200 in the same period last year, and nearly back to the peak of 2006.

According to Halifax, the average age of today’s first-time buyer is 31, two years older than a decade ago.