Highest house deposits for a decade hit first-time buyers

The average deposit needed by first-time buyers in East Anglia is nearly £37,000. Credit: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire/PA Images

People trying to get their first home on the property ladder in East Anglia face needing to find a deposit of nearly £37,000 according to a new data from the Halifax bank.

Nationally, mortgage deposits are at a ten-year high and have risen by more than 50% in the past decade.

The average age of a first-time buyer in East Anglia is 31 and they pay an average deposit of £36,698. It represents nearly a fifth of the house purchase price at 17%.

The average house price in East Anglia in June 2019 was £214,395 a rise of 57% in the past ten years.

  • Click to watch a report by ITV News Anglia's Rob Setchell

Despite needing increasingly higher levels of savings to get onto the housing ladder, the number of first-time buyers is soaring and they make up more than half of the mortgage market.

The data from the Halifax revealed that there were an estimated 6,000 first-time buyers in East Anglia in the first half of 2019 – more than double the figure of 2,900 in 2009.

That's despite deposits having risen by 52% over the same period.

The number of first-time house buyers hit a record low in 2009.

The average house price in East Anglia in June 2019 was more than £214,000. Credit: Joe Giddens/PA Wire/PA Images
The Halifax says saving for a deposit is the Credit: Jonathan Brady/PA Archive/PA Images

The Halifax says first-time buyers make up more than half of the UK’s mortgage financed house purchases, compared just over one-third in 2009.

This share has grown since 2013 when the Help to Buy Scheme was introduced by the government aiming to give first-time buyers a boost on to the housing ladder.