First time buyers take four in 10 mortgages since market resumes

Today is one month since the government lifted restrictions on agents and the housing market - and since that time the largest increase in business has been for mortgages. 

In the past month the total mortgage search volumes using FinTech service Twenty7Tec has doubled from 479,000 searches to 955,000.

“We’ve also seen the volumes of first time buyers’ searches quadruple since that announcement. First Time Buyers accounted for 39.4 per cent of all purchase searches in the past month – up from a lockdown low of 31.82 per cent just days before the [market opening] announcement” explains James Tucker, Twenty7Tec’s chief executive.

He adds: “There are still some major challenges ahead. Payment holidays are now in place for one in seven UK mortgages and we need to see how those are going to transition back to normal payments in challenging employment conditions.

“Lenders are also withdrawing from the 90 per cent Loan To Value market which is going to make it harder for first time buyers to play their role in the market. So, it’s also quite possible that this will constrain the government’s housing-led economic recovery.

“We hope that there’s a new price point that emerges quickly between first time buyers and lenders that will continue to reinvigorate the market. Currently, demand well outstrips supply with only 50 per cent of the volumes of mortgage products available pre-Covid now available.”