First-time buyers 'are driving a hard bargain when purchasing'
Published On 7 May 2008
First-time buyers who have managed to secure a mortgage are look to spend less on their new property, a new report has found.Research from Moneyextra.com found that the average property value being considered by first time-buyers dropped from £190,040 in December 2007 to just £170,559 in April.
Despite this drop, the figures also showed that the average loan-to-value first-time buyers are taking has increased to 82.89 per cent - its highest level ever.
"While it may be getting tougher to get a mortgage now, it would appear that those first-time buyers who are in a position to buy are driving much harder bargains with sellers," explained Robin Amlot, senior editor of Moneyextra.com.
"Housing is very definitely a buyers' market now rather than the sellers' market that existing homeowners had become used to."
The study also revealed that first-time buyers were increasingly joining forces to get onto the property ladder. It showed that the number of first-time buyer mortgages with dual income applications now accounted for 44.79 per cent of the market.
The power of home buyers was revealed by a recent study by Fool.co.uk which showed that gazundering was on the rise.
