The number of people buying a home for the first time surged to a seven-year
high last year, despite prices rising by an average of nine per cent.
The Halifax First
Time Buyer Review charts a 22 per cent rise in those purchasing their first
property, hitting a total of 326,500 last year.
It marked the highest level since
before the financial crisis as average prices rose to £172,000.
However, the report noted that the
average cost of a deposit for first-time buyers fell seven per cent in
2014 to £29,218 helped by record-low interest rates and an improvement in
competition for mortgages.
House prices grew in the first half
of the year, spurred by initiatives such as the government's Help to Buy
scheme.
But in the second half of the year
fears of a housing bubble saw the Bank of England impose stricter lending
limits on borrowers in a bid to cool the market.
The report also stated that
Chancellor George Osborne's stamp duty changes, announced in the autumn
statement last month, reduced the average first-time buyer's tax bill by £781.
The average age of
a new purchaser rose to 30 from 29 in 2013, while the region with the
oldest average age was London at 32, the report found.
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