London sees a 15% rise in FTBs

The number of first-time buyers purchasing homes in London rose by 15% last year.

Summary:

• 15% rise in FTBs buying property in London in 2012
• 37,300 FTBs purchased a home in the capital in 2012
• In 2011, 32,400 FTBs got on the property ladder

There has been a 15% increase in the number of first-time buyers (FTBs) purchasing properties in London since the beginning of 2012.

According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), 37,300 FTBs bought a home in the capital last year, which is an increase from 32,400 the year before.

Figures showed that there were 10,200 FTB purchases in the fourth quarter of 2012, which was an increase of 4% from the previous three-month period.

With regards to the rest of the UK, the number of FTBs buying properties in the last quarter of the year rose by 14% compared with the fourth quarter of 2011.

The average amount lent to FTBs in the UK in 2012 was 3.26 times their annual income, with home loan repayments taking up 20% of their earnings. However, Londoners borrowed 3.59 times their salary and their repayments were 21.2% of their income.

This comes after the Building Societies Association revealed that gross mortgage lending rose by 25% in January, with mutual approving 20,979 loans during the month. Both these figures demonstrate an improvement in the UK property market.

Natasha Al-Atassi

I’m a Property Investment writer for Select Property collating the latest industry news about Property Investments in Dubai, the Select Property brand and information to help investors interested in buying property abroad. I am also a freelance journalist and am often published in offline and online media, as well as being a keen wedding blogger. I hope you find my posts useful and please feel free to comment share or tweet.

0 Responses to "London sees a 15% rise in FTBs"