Halifax has revealed there is a growing disconnect between the reality of the situation for first-time buyers and their perception of the market.
The lender’s latest Generation Rent study found relatively little improvement in how potential FTBs view their chances of getting on the housing ladder.
In this most recent survey the proportion of people saving for a deposit has dropped six percentage points.
Using data from more than 40,000 20-to-45-year-olds and 4,000 parents with children in the same age group, Halifax reported 43 per cent were saving to buy a property.
The three most-cited barriers to homeownership among those who did not own a property were the size of the deposit (57 per cent), high property prices (56 per cent), and low income (53 per cent).
This is despite reported improving economic conditions, together with high-profile government schemes such as help-to-buy, which saw the highest number of FTBs purchase their first home in seven years.
Adviser view
Robert Sinclair, chief executive of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries, said: “It is to be hoped that the help-to-buy Isa can start more conversations that can lead young people towards home ownership, when combined with the other HTB initiatives.
“We also need credit scoring and affordability assessments that are less punitive on student loans, late payments and the use of short-term borrowing.
“We need lenders who can differentiate between those starting out in life and those mature borrowers in genuine difficulty. The young people of today will not be served by ‘one-size-fits-all’ risk assessment tools. It is to be hoped that Halifax can lead the way.”
