‘First-time buyer blackspots’ named

Seven out of the 11 UK regions are “first-time buyer blackspots”, a report claimed this week.

The survey of 14,125 potential property buyers, undertaken by estate agent Rightmove, found that of all respondents who intended to purchase property in the next 12 months, only
23% were doing so for the first time, down from 26% the previous quarter and well below the pre-recession figure of about 40%.

The “blackspots” identified were Yorkshire and Humberside, the South-east, the East Midlands, East Anglia, Wales, the South-west and Scotland, which all registered first-time buyer levels of below 20%.

Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove, said the figures were bad news for local housing markets and particularly for first-time sellers.

“First-time buyers perform an essential function at the start of the housing ladder by beginning chains that help others in the area to move as well,” he said.

A separate report predicted that low-to-middle income households would be shut out of home ownership for a lifetime.

The analysis, published by think tank the Resolution Foundation, claimed that high first-time buyer house prices and more restricted loan-to-value mortgage advances mean that the average low-to-middle income household putting aside 5% of their disposable income each year would have taken 31 years to save a deposit in 2010, up from just eight years in 1983.