Price hold boost for first time buyers

20-Jun-2005

Forecasts that house prices will remain static for several years will make it easier for first time buyers to get onto the first rung of the property ladder, according to latest figures.

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Property website Rightmove.co.uk house prices could remain stagnant for as many as seven years, while the market waits for first time buyers' incomes to catch up with the cost of property.

House prices are now just 2.4 per cent higher than at the same time last year - when the property market was at the height of its recent boom.

With an increasing number of houses remaining unsold, the figures provide some encouragement for first time buyers who have otherwise been largely priced out of the market.

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Rightmove claimed that it would take seven years of such statistics for the incomes of first time buyers to bridge the gap and return to the long-term average affordability level.

Rightmove commercial director, Miles Shipside, said: "In the absence of price falls across the market, the other way to improve affordability is to find the bargains. Sensible deals done at the upper end of the market will provide opportunities for the benefits of realistic pricing to be passed all the way down the chain to first-time buyers."

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