Student debt 'less of an issue' for first time buyers

02-Aug-2007

Student debt is less of an obstacle for first time buyers than problems such as lower starting salaries and a lack of available funds, Savills has said.

Though the average graduate salary is currently thought to be around £21,000, this is not enough to help most first time buyers, with over a third of those under thirty currently receiving financial assistance from their parents, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

But while student debt has to an extent compounded the difficulties experienced by graduate first time buyers already facing higher property prices, it is not a major issue in itself, according to Savills researcher Lucian Cook.

"The figures have shifted very dramatically over the past five years, so that will mean that a lot of people simply are not going to meet that sort of income level to enable them to get on the housing ladder as quickly as perhaps they thought they might have done," Mr Cook commented.

"For many, the means of building up that equity is to receive a loan or some kind of cash injection from their parents," he added.

Fifty-eight per cent of graduates do not believe they earn enough to get onto the housing ladder, a study from Scottish Widows Bank revealed last month.

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