First-time buyers faced with £6k hurdle to get on property ladder

The average first-time buyer in the North East was required to put down nearly £6,000 more as a deposit last year to get on the property ladder, according to new figures.

In 2020, the average deposit first time homeowners in the region was £29,563 – £5,775 more than the average of £23,788 in 2019, research by the Halifax banking group.

Nationally, first-time buyers were required to put down £10,000 more last year as a deposit than if they had got on the property ladder in 2019.

Across the UK, the average amount put down by a first-time buyer in 2020 was £57,278, compared with £46,449 the year before, marking a 23% increase, or £10,829 in cash terms.

Despite many low-deposit mortgages being pulled from the market in 2020 amid the coronavirus crisis, first-time buyers still made up 50% of home purchase loans last year, Halifax estimates – down from 51% in 2019.

The bank, which used UK Finance figures for part of its calculations, said the overall number of first-time buyers in 2020 was down by more than 46,000, or 13%, compared with 2019, with an estimated 304,657 first-time buyers in 2020.

This was the lowest since 2015, when there were 298,080 first-time buyers.

Russell Galley, managing director, Halifax, said: "Whilst these figures confirm the almost inevitable fall in the overall number of firsttime buyers in 2020 - with the entire housing market effectively shuttered during the first national lockdown – they also underline just how strong the bounceback was in the second half of the year.”