Number of first-time buyers fell 9% last year

The number of first-time buyers is estimated to have fallen by around 9% in 2022, as the cost of borrowing soared and low-deposit mortgages disappeared from the market, according to analysis by Yorkshire Building Society. Across the UK, the number of people taking their first step onto the property ladder was estimated to have fallen to 370,287, edging down from a 20-year high of 405,320 in 2021. The housing markets in 2020 and 2021 were skewed by the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, the mutual added. It said its estimate for 2022 would still represent a 5% annual increase, compared with 2019. But although the number of first-time buyers in 2022 was thought to be fewer overall than the previous year, those who bought a property for the first time in 2022 were believed to represent more than half (53%) of all house purchases with a mortgage, up from 50% in 2021, and 41% a decade ago. 

City AM (03/01/2023)   Daily Mail (03/01/2023)   Daily Telegraph (03/01/2023)   Evening Standard (03/01/2023)