The number of first-time buyers grew eight per cent in April despite mortgage applications becoming more restrictive and more cumbersome - in what some regard as a last hurrah' for the market before a slowdown.
Data from LSL Property Services suggests there were 26,300 first-time buyer transactions in April 2014, up eight per cent from 24,400 in March, and showing a 47 per cent year-on-year rise. The size of first-time buyer deposits fell 7.5 per cent during the year.
The tightening of mortgage criteria hasn't dampened the appetite for first-time-buyer property, says David Brown, LSL's commercial director.
But first-time buyers in London are feeling the brunt of the impact of the Mortgage Market Review and the tighter lending criteria according to the firm's findings.
Nearly a third of first-time buyers in London say they have found it more difficult to get a mortgage since the MMR regulations came into force while across the rest of the UK only 20 per cent have found an impact.
First-time buyers in the capital paid an average of £293,671 per property in the three months to April, far and away more than all other regions of the UK including south east England where the figure was £195,185.
Northern Ireland was the cheapest region for first-timers, with an average purchase price of £85,772. Yorkshire and Humberside and the north east of England saw the highest number of high LTV borrowers in the three months to April, with average deposits of £14,546 and £14,896 respectively.
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