Iwona Hovenko, real estate analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, comments on a Halifax report about “up-and-coming” locations for aspiring buyers to get a foothold on the UK's housing ladder.
First time buyers in the United Kingdom who are stuck between a rock and hard place, amidst elevated interest rates, lower mortgage affordability and costly private rentals, may very understandably seek all possible ways to buy their own home and escape the very competitive rental market.
Various industry data including from property portal Rightmove or lender Nationwide, shows that demand among this buyer group is amongst the most resilient.
In Bloomberg Intelligence's recent survey, a vast majority of UK first-time buyers would consider making various sacrifices just to buy a home, with a selection of a cheaper property being the second most-frequently chosen option, after upping a deposit.
A greater ability to work from home following the pandemic could be one of the key factors enabling wannabe homeowners to expand their search area and move further away.
Meanwhile, 63% of first-time buyers said that one of their main motives for the house purchase was to stop renting, followed by space needs.
Still, the proportion of first-time buyers we have polled in the summer who were looking to purchase in the immediate future has more than halved, even when compared to our prior survey taken in the midst of the post mini-budget rate spike.
That said, most of them pushed their buying horizon by only a few months to within the next year.
