Bank tells first-time buyers now is the time to buy

Wednesday 4th May 2011

The cost of a first-time buyer’s house varies by more than £150,000 depending on where the property is in the UK.

The average price of a first home ranges from £100,831 in the North-East to £260,261 in London.

Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks’ research also shows that London first-time buyers are almost unique in that their first home costs more than it did in November 2006.

A London first-time buyer home would have cost £230,304 then. Now it costs £260,261.

In Scotland, back in November 2006, a first home cost £110,174 and is now £113,351.

Everywhere else, first-time buyers are paying less than the year before the market peaked. Even in the South-East, prices are £16,500 lower than in 2007.

Clydesdale and Yorkshire are using the figures to try to promote home ownership to first-time buyers and tell them that now is the time to step on the housing ladder.

Two of only a handful of lenders still offering a 95% mortgage to first-time buyers, last month the banks launched a new savings account specifically for first-time buyers. While it pays very little interest, it does give a £1,000 cashback when the savers take out a Clydesdale and Yorkshire mortgage.