More signs of first-time buyer activity

The market may be slowing now but the number of first-time buyers in the first six months of the year reached their highest level since 2007.

There were an estimated 144,500 first-time buyers in the first six months of 2014, an increase of 25 per cent on the same period last year. For the third successive year the number of first-time buyers, in the first half of the year, has been over 100,000, representing the strongest performance, for this period, since the start of the downturn.

Figures from the Halifax show that almost two-thirds of all first-time buyer purchases since the New Year have been above the £125,000 stamp duty threshold - unsurprisingly, given recent house price increases, this is up from 51 per cent a year earlier.

The average first-time buyer's deposit is now £31,129, up nine per cent on a year ago; in Greater London that typical FTB deposit soars to £76,435 whereas in the north west it is just £16,532.

The average deposit, as a proportion of the purchase price, has almost doubled from 10 per cent in 2007 to 19 per cent now.

The average age of a first-time buyer is 30, up from 28 in 2009. Regionally, the average age of a first-time buyer is highest in London, at 32. In northern England and Wales it is slightly lower at 28.