Majority of graduates 'unable to buy first home'

Posted: 06 Oct 2006 09:34:03 GMT

Over half of UK graduates are uanable to afford to buy their first home.

More than half of UK graduates (53 per cent) claim that they are unable to purchase their first home.

A poll by Scottish Widows Bank found that 62 per cent of graduate first-time buyers purchased a property with a partner, with more than two thirds (68 per cent) of whom would be unable to buy them out in the event of a split.

The third annual Graduate First Time Buyer report reveals that almost a tenth of UK graduates do not believe that they will ever be able to afford a home, as the average first time buyer deposit for graduates soars to £16,219.

The bank warns that the latest report provides the bleakest picture yet of the plight of Britain's graduate first-time buyers, with the figure for graduates unable to get a foot on the property ladder up by two per cent over the past year.

The majority of graduates (64 per cent) claim that unaffordable house prices are preventing them from buying their first home, with the average cost of a new property for graduate first-time buyers £107,070.

Murdo McHardy, Scottish Widows Bank head of product development and marketing, said: "For graduates to stand a chance of getting on the housing ladder, then both lenders and the government need to work hard to develop products that suit their needs. Increasingly graduates are having to find different ways of getting on the ladder – through buying with other people to relying on their parents to put them up while they save."

Britain's first-time buyers are increasingly struggling to enter the property market as house price rises continue to outstrip wage inflation.

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