Average age of first-time buyers is 38

16-Mar-2010

The average age of a first-time buyer is now 38, according to an article in the Independent.

Tim Walker, writing in the newspaper about his housing struggle, tells how as a man in his late-20s, he still has a decade of renting ahead of him.

"An Englishman's home is no longer his castle - it's a bedsit on a six-month lease that he's not allowed to redecorate," he states.

Often the only way to get on the first rung of the property ladder in the current economic climate is to be lucky enough to get parental help.

The fact some families are being forced to offer sons and daughters cash to buy a property shows up a failure of public policy.

And the trend of affluent parents dipping into savings or spare funds to help their children is bad news for the less-privileged, Mr Walker argues, with home owning becoming more hereditary.

Latest figures from the Department of Communities and Local Government show the challenge for would-be first-time buyers is not getting any easier, with house prices rising by almost five per cent in the quarter to January 2010.

How to buy a house from finding your first property, first time buyer mortgages, mortgage advice, shared equity, shared ownership, joint ownership, part buy part rent and HomeBuy. All a first time buyer could need as well as first time buyer news at FirstRungNow.com.

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