First time buyer sales rising significantly says NAEA

Sales to first time buyers now account for 29 per cent of all sale transactions according to the National Association of Estate Agents.

The figure - for deals done by NAEA member agents in September - contrasts with just 20 per cent in August. 

“It’s obviously very positive to see that the number of sales being made to first time buyers has risen this month. We saw an average nine sales going through per branch in September which means that for each branch around three sales were made to this group” says Mark Hayward, the NAEA’s managing director.

“We’re seeing a whole range of new competitive mortgage products coming on to the market, which is likely to be encouraging first steppers to take the plunge, as well as the fact that the ‘impending’ interest rate rise has now been pushed back to next year at the very earliest” he says.

The number of house-hunters registered per estate agent branch dropped in September, following a period of "high and unsustainable demand" in July and August according to the association. 

On average, there were 342 prospective buyers registered at each NAEA member branch in September.

This is a drop of 16 per cent from the 408 recorded in August, and a 26 per cent drop from July when demand reached an 11 year high with an average of 462 house-hunters per branch.

The number of properties available to buy dropped marginally to 37 per member branch in September. This followed a huge fall in the availability of housing stock the month before, when the number of properties available fell from 55 in July to 38 in August – a decrease of 31 per cent.