The UK housing market has seen its first fall in the number of first-time buyers for the last four years with the increase in required deposit to buy a property now above £30,000, The Guardian reports.
Halifax's data show the total number of first-time buyers last year at 310,000 dropped 0.5% on 2014 and since the 2011 decline.
The low inventories of homes as well as the increase in the amount of deposit to buy a home are the reasons believed to have caused the decline. From £29,094, the average deposit rose to £32,927 in 2015 - an increase of 13%.
For first-time buyers in London, getting on the property ladder would mean finding three times that amount with the average deposit now at £91,409.
Halifax, UK's largest lender, revealed that first-time buyers are dropping big on deposits to get longer mortgages and more affordable repayments compared to their counterparts in previous years.
Last year, a quarter of first-time buyers took on 35-year mortgages.
However, the drop in cost of mortgages for those who can't afford big deposits and lenders' openness to first-time buyers are not enough given the rising prices. There has been a 10% increase in the average cost of buying a home for first-timers in 2015 at £190,180.
When the property market reached its last peak in 2007, the average deposit for first-time buyers climbed 88%. Since, some lenders offered loans of more than 100% of a property's value.
In the same period, Halifax recorded an increase in the number of loans arranged over a period that extended to more than the traditional 25-year term. In 2007, a 35-year mortgage had been the choice for 16% of first-time buyers which then rose to 26% in 2015. Meanwhile, 20- to 25-yer mortgage terms dropped to 30% from 48% over the same period.
There was a drop in the number of first-time buyers in 2014, but still at 60% higher than the figures of 2011 and falls within the rest of the residential market, says Halifax.
According to David Hollingworth of London & Country mortgage brokers, first-time buyers try to bridge the gap between the mortgage they can afford based on their income and increasing housing prices by finding larger deposits.
"While it sounds like a bad thing to do we should remember that in the past some first-time buyers were taking out interest-only mortgages without repayment vehicles to reduce their monthly costs, thinking they would worry about it later - it has to be better to take out a repayment mortgage over a longer time," he said.
"The downside is that over the whole term it does cost a lot more if you take out a longer mortgage."
Halifax mortgage director Craig McKinlay said: "Although the average price of the typical first-time buyer home has grown by 10% in the past year, the number of buyers taking that first step onto the housing ladder has been supported by favourable economic conditions; namely, record low mortgage rates, rising employment and real pay growth."
