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First-time buyer market remains flat – Poll

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  • 20/09/2012
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First-time buyer market remains flat – Poll
The first-time buyer market has remained static in the last six months, despite numerous government schemes coming into force, according to the latest Mortgage Solutions People’s Poll.

A recent report by RBS had suggested that market conditions for first-time buyers were better than they had been for three years.

Our poll asked brokers if they had been placing more cases for first-time buyers recently than they had been earlier in the year, but over two-thirds of respondents said the market was stagnant.

Just 13% said that sales had improved, with a fifth of voters admitting that their sales to first-timers had actually fallen in recent times.

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Geoff Trevorah, broker at Echo Home Finance, told Mortgage Solutions that government schemes like NewBuy and FirstBuy were well intentioned, but were having little effect on the day-to-day market.

“We’ve not had a great deal of first-time buyers recently so I would definitely agree the market is flat.

“Something that sums the present market up is that a property went on the market in Egham a while back, it would have been ideal for a first-time buyer but the market is so weak the estate agent was telling the seller that investors were his only bet for a sale.

“Nobody seems to think about government schemes. People don’t seem to use them at all. The big problem remains that young people can’t find the deposit they need to buy a house.

“In addition the rates on 90% and 95% mortgages are too high. Obviously the banks are pricing those rates like that because of the higher risk, but charging 5.5% and 5.75% is just too much.”

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