The average first-time buyer deposit has almost doubled in the last decade from £17,740 to £33,339, according to research from Halifax.

The lender said that, despite this huge increase in the typical amount required upfront to buy your first property, numbers of first-time buyers are at their highest level in the last 10 years. They grew by 6% in the last year alone.

There were 359,000 first-time buyers in 2017, up for the sixth consecutive year. This is an increase of 87% compared to an all-time low of 192,3002 in 2008 and is now just 11% below the most recent peak of 402,800 in 2006. First-time buyers now account for half of all house purchases made with a mortgage, an increase from 36% a decade ago.

The average price of a first-time buyer property has also increased hugely in 10 years, from £174,703 to £212,079 in 2017.

Russell Galley, managing director of Halifax, said: “Low mortgage rates, high levels of employment and Government schemes such as Help to Buy4 have helped first-time buyers become a much greater segment of the market, and the recent abolition of Stamp Duty on purchases of up to £300,000 is likely to continue stimulating this growth by reducing the upfront costs associated with taking the first step on to the property ladder.”

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Regional split

In the past decade, the number of first-time buyers in London has fallen by 26% from 57,900 in 2007 to an estimated 42,983 in 2017, marking the third consecutive annual decline. The North is the only other region aside from the capital to see a drop in numbers from 17,300 to 16,430 (5%) during the same period.

On the other hand, the number of people getting on the housing ladder in Northern Ireland has grown by 65% to 9,410. The second largest rise was in the South West (16%, from 25,400 to 29,399). The South East has the largest number of first-time buyers in the UK, totalling over 69,000 last year, edging up from 67,600 in 2007.

The average price of a typical first-time buyer home in the South East has increased by £78,855 (or 39%) since 2007 – from £199,894 to £278,749 in 2017. In London, the average price paid by a new entrant to the property market in the capital has grown by £134,902 to £422,580 – double the national average.

House price growth in northern areas has been considerably more modest. In the last 10 years, the average price of a typical first-time buyer home in the North has grown by £9,462 to £126,437, while in Northern Ireland it has fallen £59,240 (33%) to £120,648 – the lowest in the UK.