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First-time Buyers

Wannabe owners cut back spending

Adam Williams
Written By:
Adam Williams
Posted:
Updated:
14/09/2015

Clothes, meals out and holidays are the first things to be sacrificed by wannabe first-time buyers, a new survey has found.

With would-be first-time buyers requiring bigger deposits than ever to get onto the housing ladder, many are making big changes to their lifestyles in order to save.

Research from Zopa found that two-thirds of people eat out less when saving for a property. In addition, more than half of people cut back on clothes and other spending.

Switching to own brand products at the supermarket and going on cheaper holidays are other popular ways to save cash.

The firm also suggested would-be buyers were investing in peer-to-peer services as they believed they could save a deposit faster this way.

However, one-in-four people said they were making no changes at all to their spending and saving habits.

One-in-five people (22%) surveyed said they were looking to buy a house within the next year, with a further 47% working towards a three year timescale.

However, high house prices appear to be deterring many people from saving at all. A third of people who were not saving said that house prices were too high for them to even think about buying.

Over 40% of people said they were aiming to save a deposit of over £40,000, but this rose to over half (55%) of Londoners who are eager to buy. A decade ago only 2% of savers aimed for a deposit pot of more than £40,000.

Zopa’s executive chairman and co-founder Giles Andrews said, “Buying a home is a major milestone in many people’s lives and saving a deposit is getting harder each year as prices and the amount required increases.”


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