Inexpensive Deals and Schemes Helps More First Time Buyers

Inexpensive Deals and Schemes Helps More First Time Buyers

An array of more competitive deals and schemes, along with the Government’s Help to Buy Scheme which started back in 2013, have been boosting more first time buyers onto the property ladder in the UK – according to the latest mortgage lending figures

The latest mortgage trends update report from the UK Finance shows that in November 2018, first time buyer mortgages were up 5.8% from the same month in 2017, with over 36,000 new mortgages completed. Plus, the £6 billion of new lending was 9.1% higher year on year.

The latest figures also show 39,600 new home owner remortgages completed which is a rise of 1.3% when you compare with November 2017 and the £6.8 billion of remortgaging in the month did not change year on year too.

However, new buy to let lending has continued to reduce, with 6,100 new buy to let purchase mortgages in November 2018, which was down 9% year on year – and the £0.8 billion of lending in this area was down 11.1% if you compare with November 2017 figures.

However, 15,000 new buy to let remortgages were completed which was a rise of 9.5% year on year. The value of this was £2.4 billion which is up 9.1% on an annual basis.

Jackie Bennett, director of mortgages at UK Finance said: “A mixture of competitive deals and schemes including Help to Buy saw even more first time buyers get a foot on the housing ladder during November.

“Meanwhile, home owner remortgaging activity has steadied, after reaching its highest level in a decade the previous month as a large number of fixed-rate deals came to an end. In the buy to let market new home purchases remain subdued while remortgaging continues to grow as landlords lock into attractive rates.”

While Steve Seal, director of sales and marketing at Bluestone Mortgages advised that not all buyers are experiencing the same level of increases, in particular, those wanting to borrow money but have complex financial circumstances.

He commented: “Self-employed workers, contractors, freelancers or those with credit blips are all growing pools of borrowers struggling to access lending via traditional means.”

Adrian Moloney, sales director at OneSavings Bank said: “There is an understandable sense of caution from investors, no doubt influenced by the current political situation, which is arguably weighing on purchase decisions and compounding the effect of increasing tax costs.

“Remortgaging is naturally dominating activity, therefore, as investors take advantage of the low rates currently available to provide financial certainty and reduce their mortgage costs where they can.”

Furthermore, The HMRC published their Annual stamp duty Statistics for 2017-2018 last year indicating that first time buyers continued to flourish in an unpredictable market following the announcement of the stamp duty relief in the Budget last year.

There is no doubt that statistics show first time buyers continue to prosper in an unsteady housing marketplace with the help of a mixture of deals, schemes and Government relief allowing them to tread the first step of the housing ladder.

As a conveyancer, what is your opinion of these statistics? Have you seen an increase in first time buyers getting on the property ladder?

Toni Ryder-McMullin

Toni is the Media Officer for Today’s Conveyancer, Today’s Wills & Probate and Today's Family Lawyer. I worked for a law firm for 16 years, during my time at the firm I worked as a company commercial legal secretary for 7 years but changed careers and moved into marketing for the remaining 9 years – where I covered all aspects of marketing. While in the marketing role, I achieved a CIM Professional Certificate in Marketing and CAM Diploma in Digital Marketing.

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