Cost of buying a first home climbs almost £9,000 per year over the last decade

Research by MoveStreets, the property portal designed for the mobile generation, has revealed that the average first-time buyer across Britain has seen the cost of purchasing their initial home climb by £8,663 per year on average over the last decade. 

It’s a tough ask to climb the property ladder in 2021 and Britain’s first-time buyers are now facing an average cost of £225,607 for the privilege, up from £138,973 just a decade ago. That’s a 62% increase meaning that the average first-time buyer has seen the cost of a home increase by £8,663 per year on average since 2011. 

Of course, this increase has been far higher in some areas and nowhere more so than in the capital. Across London, the average first-time buyer now pays £437,511 to get a foot on the ladder, a cost that has increased by £18,134 per year over the last 10 years. 

First-time buyers in the South East (£12,043) and the East of England (£11,206) have also seen the cost of their first home jump by more than £10,000 a year since 2011. 

Even in the North East where property prices have increased at the slowest rate, the average first-time buyer house price has climbed by £3,301 per year over the last decade.

At local authority level, the largest annual increases in the cost of first-time buyer homes have been in Kensington and Chelsea (£38,459), Hackney (£30,845) and Hammersmith and Fulham (£29,648), while outside of the capital Hertsmere (£19,581), Cambridge (£18,309) and Elmbridge (£17,534) have seen some of the largest annual jumps. 

Adam Kamani, CEO and Co-Founder property portal of MoveStreets, commented:

“It’s a tough ask to climb the property ladder and today’s first-time buyers are facing a considerably tougher task than those before them with the average first home now costing almost £226,000. 

While we’ve come to expect that property prices are likely to climb due to the government’s failure in providing enough new affordable homes, it really does put it into perspective when looking at how much they’ve increased in the last decade.

To think that in a single year, the average first-time buyer property will cost a further £8,663 when compared to the previous year is quite amazing and it’s a wonder so many struggle to buy in the current climate.

Let’s not forget this is only first-time buyer properties we’re talking about here, which should essentially be the most affordable on the market in any given location.”

First-time buyer house prices sourced from the Gov.uk UK House Price Index - First-time buyer versus Former owner-occupier