Conditions 'worsening' for first time buyers

18/08/2008

People buying homes are handing around 69 per cent of their incomes over to their mortgage firm, new analysis from Citigroup shows.

The bank arrived at the figure after adding together the amount a buyer spent on their initial deposit and twelve months of payments.

Citigroup also suggested that housing costs for new buyers were now taking up a bigger proportion of incomes than at any time since 1974, the Observer reports.

Elsewhere, housing research conducted on behalf of the newspaper by Globrix shows that sellers in many UK cities, including Glasgow, Birmingham and some London suburbs, are reducing their expectations and downgrading their homes' asking prices by around £2,000 each.

This is set to exacerbate the falls in average house prices which have been registered by lenders including Halifax and Nationwide recently.

The latest results from both lenders show that the average home's value has dropped by around eight per cent over the last year alone.

However, further figures from Nationwide show that, despite these falls, the average deposit now required by lenders has increased from £13,160 to £17,300.

Tags; Housing Debt and Bills,

Regional Debt Advice; Debt Help Glasgow, Debt Help London, Debt Advice Birmingham, Debt Advice Glasgow,

• Share
• 
• 
• Store
• 
• Follow
•