The number of first-time buyers in the UK fell by 10.6% last year, new research by Wayhome has revealed.

Figures from the gradual homeownership provider indicated that an estimated 362,461 first-time buyers came to the housing market in 2022, compared to a record 405,320 in 2021.

Wayhome analysed first-time buyer transaction levels to see how many buyers made it onto the ladder during the pandemic property market boom, and how this has changed over the last decade.

First-time buyer property purchases plummeted when the COVID pandemic struck in 2020, with the number of those buying their first home falling to 303,980. This marked a 13.5% annual drop, the largest annual decline in the last decade – between 2012 and 2022 – and just the third annual decline seen since 2012.

However, the introduction of the stamp duty holiday in July 2020 helped to rejuvenate the market, with the estimated number of first-time buyers jumping 33.3% in a record 2021. 

Despite this, Wayhome suggested that last year’s figures indicate the “pandemic property market party” is now over. With the exception of the 13.5% reduction spurred by the pandemic in 2020, the 10.6% fall between 2021 and 2022 is just the fourth and by far the next largest annual decline seen in the last decade. 

“The cost of borrowing remains substantially more expensive despite mortgage rates starting to level out and we’re yet to see any real reduction in the already sky-high cost of a home,” said Wayhome co-founder and CEO, Nigel Purves.

“What’s more, the Help to Buy scheme has all but shut up shop and so there is very little help available for the nation’s first-time buyers when it comes to tackling the sizeable cost of homeownership. 

“Gradual and shared homeownership models are really the only remaining step up, but we simply can’t fill the void alone, and so the onus is now on the government to step up and address the issue for those who simply can’t make the jump between the rental and housing markets.”

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