First time buyers, who’s buying and for how long?
Below are some really interesting stats all based on: First time buyers, who’s buying and for how long?
- First time buyers, who’s buying and for how long?
- 5.5 million households are currently living in their first-time buyer home, the equivalent of over 35% of all owner occupiers.
- 36% of first-time buyer households are single person households. Over 60% are couples with or without dependent children. One in five of those who live in the first home they bought are aged 65 or more.
- Two-thirds of first-time buyers expect to be in their property for less than 10 years. However, 18% expect to live in their property for 20 years or more, rising to 33% of first-time buyers who are aged 45 and over.
- Each year, on average over 350,000 first-time buyers step onto the property ladder. The average age is now 34. The Halifax report first-time buyers accounted for 52% of all home purchase loans in 2022. Source: Dataloft, Institute of Fiscal Studies( https://ifs.org.uk/ ), Legal and General
What we think.
When given facts like those above, we like to sit down with a cuppa and really ‘drill down’ into those numbers to try and make as much sense of it as we can.
There is little doubt that people move much more now than they ever did. Think back to when you were young, and the chances are that when you visited family and friends, you went to the same properties all the time.
Forward to 2023 and the one major difference now is how many single person house there are. Whilst this number has been growing year on year, the figures today are surprising to say the least.
36% (almost 2 million) households are single person households AND are first time buyers. Also the fact that 20% of those who still live in their first home are aged 65 or more. Who knew!
Perhaps the most surprising stats of all are:
- 18% expect to live in their property for 20 years or more.
- The average age for a first time buyer is 34.
Summary.
Almost 1 in 5 now expect to live in their first home for more than 20 years! With the average age of a first time buyer now at an all time high of 34, it would seem that their is a massive number of people that perhaps expect to only move once or maybe twice in their ‘property owning’ lifetime.
With 34 years of age being the average age of a first time buyer, there can be little doubt that the main reason for this is the ability to save enough money for the deposit.
Perhaps we will revisit this in a year. By then the market might be different enough, and we can see what has happened to these figures.
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