According to recent research* first-time buyers now need large deposits if they are to be taken seriously when applying for a mortgage.
Despite renewed confidence in the property market mortgage lenders still require a minimum of a 5% deposit and are still relatively conservative when lending to first-time buyers.
The research coincides with recent statistics from the British Bankers Association, which highlighted that mortgage lending fell to a figure of 35,000 in January. This is a sharp drop, when compared with the 46,000 home loans that were approved in December 2009.
The fall in mortgage lending has been attributed to the end of the stamp duty holiday and the nationwide freeze of transactions due to the cold snap that affected the UK in January of this year.
* Research by My Mortgage Direct
Source: HouseLadder
08 September 2010
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