A new survey claims to have revealed the average mortgage deposit Britons must be able to save up in order to purchase their first home.
The research, which was carried out by online property agent sellhousefast.uk, suggests that the average first-time buyer needs to save a deposit of £25,867 in order to get a foot on Britain’s property ladder.
This figure is up from an average deposit of just £1,006 put down by first-time homeowners purchasing properties between the years 1977 and 1997, the firm’s survey reveals.
However, separate reports suggest that, due to several Government support programmes such as the Help to Buy scheme, home ownership is still a realistic prospect for young people with small savings – as evidenced by the record number of first-time buyers that successfully purchased a home in 2017.
Up-to-date figures from UK Finance suggest that 265,000 new homeowners purchased a UK property last year – a 7.4 per cent increase on the number of first-time buyers that successfully bought their first home the previous year.
Of these 265,000 new homeowners, as many as 40,000 benefited from the Government’s Help to Buy scheme, separate data from estate agent Savills suggests.
At the same time, confidence among young savers appears to be rising, with more than a quarter (27 per cent) of 18 to 21-year-olds quizzed by sellhousefast.uk confident that they will become homeowners before they turn 25.