First-time buyer sales rose climbed 11 per cent last month to a completion total of 25,800 despite signs of a wider market slowdown.
The average first-time buyer purchase price rose three per cent year-on-year to £150,950, while the average first-time buyer deposit fell eight per cent to £26,134 with more high loan-to-value lending helping keep the market accessible.
At the same time, deposits fell even faster as a proportion of annual income. The average first-time buyer deposit represented 67.6 per cent of annual income in September this year, 12 per cent lower than in September 2013.
These figures, from LSL Property Services, cite averages across the UK. In London, of course, many sums are much higher.
In the capital the average purchase price for first-time buyers was £276,168 in the third quarter of this year, no less than £170,000 more than the average purchase price in Northern Ireland and £130,000 more than the all-UK average of £143,721.
First-time buyers in the capital also have the largest deposits on average - £75,774 in the third quarter of the year compared to the UK average of £26,078.
There may be a lesson to be learnt from Scotland....revisiting the stamp duty slab structure is something that would actually help first-time buyers at the lower end, by removing some of the additional costs associated with buying properties. Even the cheapest homes in the capital are now mostly liable for stamp duty warns LSL spokesman David Newnes.
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