The number of first-time buyers climbing onto the property ladder is providing a boost for Gloucestershire agents. A report shows figures are at their highest level for the first half of this year than they have been at any time in the past six years.
The new report from Halifax reveals the first six months of 2013 saw around 120,000 newcomers in the UK get themselves their first home, 19 per cent higher than in the January to June period of 2012.
Leon Broady, director at The Property Centre, which has offices in Gloucester and Stroud, said more favourable mortgage rates and government schemes had contributed to the rise.
The number of first-time buyers has reached its highest level since late 2007, according to Halifax and the Council of Mortgage Lenders. In May this year, they accounted for almost half of all house purchase loans and the size of a typical deposit has decreased to 17 per cent of the total property value, the CML said.
Mr Broady said: "All this is welcome. However, government schemes on their own don't explain the 25,100 borrowers who bought their first home in May. Perhaps these buyers were helped by the fact that unemployment has fallen, the UK avoided a triple-dip recession and the Eurozone crisis has temporarily simmered down.
"And then there's the shift in the mortgage market itself. While several high street banks reduced lending, smaller building societies and challenger banks have thrown themselves into the challenge of helping first-time buyers.
"Using human underwriting and often catering directly to local borrowers, these lenders have pioneered low-deposit and savings-linked mortgages since the financial crash."
First-time buyers have increased thanks in part to the Funding for Lending Scheme, introduced in the second half of last year. The initiative allows those looking to get a place on the market the chance to buy without having to raise the same sort of deposit they did in the past, with banks easing restrictions.
The Government's Help to Buy scheme has also proved popular among buyers and developers in Gloucestershire and has just been expanded. Mortgage guarantees will launch in January after Chancellor George Osborne met major housebuilders to flesh out plans to underwrite £130 billion of mortgage lending.
Jon Plant, Gloucestershire area manager of Andrews Estate Agents, said: "We are seeing a strong return of the first-time buyer as mortgages are becoming more accessible. For example, some lenders are now offering mortgages at 95 per cent LTV (loan-to-value) which is making the prospect of buying your first home more achievable for people."
Craig McKinlay, mortgages director at Halifax, added: "The increased availability and reduced pricing of higher loan-to-value mortgages introduced over the past year or so have clearly contributed to the number of first-time buyers rising to a six year high.
"Government schemes, such as New Buy and Help to Buy, are also enabling more first-time buyers to enter the market."
