First-time buyers reach highest levels since 2007

The number of first-time homebuyers in the past year is estimated to have reached its highest level since 2007. Across the UK, there were 353,436 first-time buyers in 2019, slightly up from the 353,130 recorded in 2018 and the highest annual total since 357,590 in 2007, according to calculations by Yorkshire Building Society. In 2006, the annual total stood at 400,870. Nearly twice as many first-time buyers secured a mortgage in 2019 as at the start of the financial crisis in 2008 (191,040).

The Daily Telegraph (01/01/20)