House prices for first-time buyers have increased by 69% over the past decade, with the average price of £142,473 in 2010 rising to £241,025 today, new data from Halifax has revealed.

The research also showed that the number of first-time buyers has fallen by 29% since last year. In the first six months of 2020, there were 116,843 first-time buyers, compared to 164,800 over the same period in 2019.

Halifax noted that this fall comes despite first-time buyers making up over half (52%) of the property market, a figure up from 38% in 2009. This share has steadily risen since the introduction of Help to Buy in 2013, which the bank highlighted has helped more than 270,000 buyers take their first step on to the property ladder.

The data showed that the most expensive first-time buyer properties are found in London, where the average home costs £463,536, and this was followed by the South East where properties cost £303,838, and East Anglia, with an average property price of £228,004.

First-time buyers can find the cheapest homes in the North East, where the average price is £140,114, and in Northern Ireland, at an average £143,040.

The average age of a first-time buyer has remained consistent over the past 15 years, Halifax’s research also revealed, rising from 30 in 2005 to 31 today. The youngest first-time buyers can be found in North East Derbyshire in the East Midlands, where the average age is 28, while the oldest are in Richmond upon Thames, London, where the average age is 36.

Halifax mortgages director, Tom Martin, commented: “Whilst the number of first-time buyers suffered a sharp fall during lockdown, numbers are beginning to increase as we approach the autumn, with purchases that were paused beginning to move again, and buyers making the most of the Government’s stamp duty changes.

“With first-time buyers in London paying almost double what they were a decade ago, yet many regions in Scotland remaining affordable, the challenges facing first-time buyers are clearly significantly influenced by where in the UK they are house hunting.”

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