Young first-time buyers still coping

First-time buyers in their 20s are still managing to get a foot on the property ladder, despite rising house prices, said a report today.

Mortgage broker the Mortgage Advice Bureau said that, contrary to reports from Britain's biggest mortgage lender the Halifax, which said that the average age of the first-time buyer was 33, in many areas of the country first-time buyers were still in their 20s.

Cheshire appeared to be a hotspot for young buyers, where the average age of those buying their first property was 22 both in Warrington and Crewe, said the broker. The group also said that first-time buyers in the area accounted for 50% of the mortgages it arranged, compared with an average of 35% across England as a whole.

In the west Yorkshire towns of Bradford and Huddersfield, where the average house price is just less than ?100,000, the typical age of a first-time buyer was 24, while in Mansfield in Derbyshire it was 25.

"Certain areas of the country remain eminently affordable to first-time buyers, and in these towns they are purchasing at ages far below the national average," said Peter Brodnicki, chief executive of the Mortgage Advice Bureau.

According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, first-time buyers are returning to the market, with their numbers increasing to 35,000 in August from 30,000 the previous month.

The National Association of Estate Agents said that first-time buyers now account for 17% of all sales compared to the all-time low of 14% back in May. Yet this remains well below the 2002 average of 25%.

Both the Halifax and Nationwide have said recently they expect house prices to slow in the coming year as first-time buyers struggle with affordability.