Youngsters expect to be 40 before buying home

FIRST-TIME buyers expect to save up to the age of 40 before they can purchase a home, a study has found.

The age of the average first-time buyer has rocketed over the past 50 years with high property prices forcing the young to rent or to live with their parents, the report reveals.

In the 1960s, the average firsttime buyer was aged 24. This rose to 28 in the 1980s but now many young people say they do not expect to be able to buy until they are 35.

In some regions the average was even higher, with aspiring buyers in Scotland and the North East saying they will be 40 before they can buy their own home,

Those in the East Midlands said they expected to be 39, those in the West Midlands said 29 while in London the average was 33.

The study asked around 1,300 homeowners the age at which they had bought their first property, before asking around 600 prospective first-time buyers at what age they expected to be able to buy.

Official figures show a third of recent first-time buyers in England were over 34.

Half say they expect it will

‘A generation locked out’

take ‘ten years or more’ to save for a deposit. The report by the Post Office also reveals how findings from the Government’s English Housing Survey highlight the nightmare facing millions who cannot afford to buy their own home.

The Government’s study said 32.3 per cent of first-time buyers between 2008 and 2011 were aged 35 or over. Of this number, 6.5 per cent were in their late 40s and early 50s.

Shelter, the housing charity, warns that renting is becoming ‘a way of life for a whole generation who are locked out of the market’.

John Willcock, head of Post Office Mortgages, said: ‘ The average age of a first-time buyer has been creeping up over the past 50 years. The sheer size of the deposit is the most daunting thing.’

A typical young person puts down a deposit equal to 20 per cent of a property’s value, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders. Before the credit crunch it was 10 per cent.

The price of the average home is £ 160,300, the same price as August 2009.

This figure masks huge regional variations. In one exclusive borough in the capital, Kensington and Chelsea, the average price is £ 1.1million, compared with £109,200 in the North West.