First Time Buyers Can Handle Their Mortgages (For Now at Least)

Lorna Bourke quotes Council of Mortgage Lender's stats in yesterday's London Evening Standard which show that in 1987 the average first time buyer's mortgage repayments were 17.9% of gross earnings.
The figure today is almost unchanged at 17.8%
Of course multiples of income borrowed are higher today but as expressed as a percentage of earnings it works out the same as a result of the lower interest rates today.

This is an interesting statistic which suggests as long as interest rates don't go up (a big if!) then house prices won't crash like they did in 1989-1993 (when they fell by around 25% in London.)
Lorna also quotes me in the same article on the growing proportion of families who are renting rather than buying. Her article is a good read (and not just because she quotes me!)
If you live own or rent a property in London you should get the Standard's Homes supplement on Wednesdays. (Other papers with good property sections are the FT on Saturday, the Indy on Wednesday and the Times on Friday)

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This entry was posted by lettingfocus, on Thursday, February 15, 2007.