There has been a significant rise in the average house price paid by first-time buyers with government schemes such as Help to Buy assisting those looking to buy for the first time.
The figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), show first-time buyers paying on average £187,000 in the year to November, up 6.4%. Help to Buy has made mortgages more accessible for many but it has also led to prices going up, especially in London and the south-east, which has seen an 11.6% increase year-on-year. If that area is taken out of the equation, Prices are up by 3.1%.
Richard Sexton, director of e.surv chartered surveyors, said that prices were going up “artificially quickly” because of a shortage of new homes coming onto the market, with first-time buyers bearing the brunt. He said new homes were desperately needed to stop the bottom of the market being priced out completely.
A survey from the property website Zoopla shows that homeowners generally expect house prices to keep on rising throughout 2014. The survey predicts an average rise of 7.2% nationally by the summer, though people in London predict a bigger rise of 9.6%.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jan/14/house-prices-up-uk-ons
