First-time buyers are completing on their homes with less help from their parents – albeit slightly later in life – according to new data.
First-time buyers who received money from a friend or family member went from 34 per cent of buyers in the first quarter of 2024 to just under 30 in the first quarter of 2025, according to TSB.
“Gradually falling mortgage rates and easing inflationary pressures have improved affordability and the data will eventually catch up with these more positive market trends,” Chris Little, chief revenue officer at finova, said.
In 2023, 57 per cent of all mortgaged first-time buyers – 164,000 – had family assistance in buying their first home in 2023, the highest figure since 2012, according to Savills.
While affordability reached dire lows in 2022 and 2023 during the spike in mortgage rates, it is slowly but steadily increasing as wages grow and mortgage rates come down.
A small silver from the tariff turmoil, too, may be that mortgage rates come down further as the Bank of England tries to avoid a recession via lower interest rates.
“The Bank of England is likely to cut the base rate up to three times this year [and] cheaper mortgages will allow buyers to afford more and support average prices,” Jonathan Hopper, CEO of Garrington Property Finders, said.
TSB also found that first-time buyers are taking out slightly shorter mortgage terms – down from 32 to 31 years in a year – as mortgage rates fall.
However, ongoing affordability issues can be seen in the age at which people buy their first home as higher property prices, as well as higher student debt and higher rents, affect the ability of young people to save.
Yorkshire and Humber is now the only region where first-time buyers have an average age in their 20’s, with all other regions in their 30’s. In London, the average age is 33.
The average age of a first-time buyer has steadily climbed from 24 in the ’60s to 27 in the ’80s.
