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First-time buyers face shortage of homes for sale

Monday, 6 February 2012 9:56 AM

First-time buyers are set to take a slightly larger share of house purchases over the next 12 months, according to Rightmove.

The property website says around one in four (24.3 per cent) of buyers will be first-timers, up 1.4 percentage points on the final quarter of 2011 and 1.5 on a year ago.

Their biggest concern remains raising a deposit (nominated by 39 per cent). However finding a suitable property (29 per cent) is also a growing worry.

Rightmove says that is driven in part by a shortage of sellers of the sort of property they target. The number of flats coming on to the market in the final quarter of 2011 was down 31 per cent on the previous quarter and the number of terraced homes down 29 per cent.

Almost half (49 per cent) of first-time buyers say current house prices are higher than is fair and reasonable, with 27 per cent saying they are about fair and eight per cent saying they are lower than reasonable.

Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove, said: "Finding somewhere to buy and being able to access the means to actually buy it are the two biggest concerns for first-time buyers.

"With interest rates keeping monthly mortgage repayments comparatively low and fierce demand in the rental sector keeping the monthly rents high, you can understand the frustration of many 'trapped renters' who would like to buy but simply don't have the means to get over the deposit hurdles put up by lenders."

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