Property ladder to be "an impossible leap" for first-time buyers

Posted: 27 Nov 2009 10:31:20 GMT

Getting onto the property ladder will become an "impossible leap" for many first-time buyers once the stamp duty holiday comes to an end.

Hannah-Mercedes Skenfield, mortgages channel manager at moneysupermarket.com says that taking into account the cash deposit that is required by most banks for a mortgage, it will be difficult for many first-time buyers to purchase their first property.

She goes on to add that thousands of house buyers are trying to benefit from the stamp duty holiday before it ends on December 31st.

The number of people looking to purchase a property under the £175,000 benchmark has increased by nearly ten per cent in the last three months.

Ms Skenfield believes that the previous benchmark of £125,000 is "exceedingly low" seeing that the average house price in every region in the UK is above this figure.

An estimated 132,500 house purchase transactions have avoided stamp duty as a result of the tax threshold being raised last year, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

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