Research on first-time buyers from Reallymoving suggested this would amount to savings of £25,554, including a 10 per cent deposit of £23,400 and £2,154 in moving costs.
This is based on a first-time buyer property price of £234,000, a conveyancing fee of £1,314, a survey charge of £420 and an additional £420 for removals.
This time to save reduces to just over three years, or 38 months, for people who buy jointly when calculated on the average UK salary of £34,963.
For people putting their money into a Lifetime ISA (LISA) and receiving a 25 per cent bonus, this time to save reduced by 16 months to five years.
First-time buyers in London taking twice as long
With higher average property prices in the English capital, Reallymoving’s data showed first-time buyers in London had to save for eight years and eight months to raise a 10 per cent deposit of £42,500 and £2,512 in moving costs, totalling £45,012.
This was nearly double the time it would take for a buyer in Scotland or the North East, who would need to save for 55 months or four years and seven months to raise £16,000 or £13,000 respectively.
Rob Houghton, founder and CEO of Reallymoving, said: “Mortgage affordability has been a big focus over the last two years, but raising a deposit and covering the cost of moving is still the biggest challenge facing most first-time buyers who don’t have access to the Bank of Mum and Dad.
“With the cost of living, and rents, still so high, putting money aside every month is extremely difficult, and even for those who are able to do that consistently, the average first-time buyer is still looking at a minimum six-and-a-half-year wait to get on the ladder.
He added: “Clearly, tackling access to homeownership is not a top priority for the Conservative government, with no support whatsoever for first-time buyers in the Spring Budget. We can only hope that, as the parties publish their manifestos in the run up to the general election, we will finally see meaningful action to increase housing supply, including social housing, which would filter through to lower house price inflation for the rest of the market.
“With net migration into the UK of 670,000 in 2023, increasing supply is the only way to make homeownership more affordable in the long term.”
