'Mortgage issues may benefit first-time buyers'
Published on : 31/03/2008
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First-time buyers are the likely beneficiaries of the withdrawal of mortgage products from the market, it has been asserted.
Firstrung's operations director Paul Holmes said that house prices are likely to fall "quite dramatically" as a result of mortgage lenders reducing the number of available deals.
Indeed, in the month up to March 20th, some 2,026 mortgage deals were taken off the market, according to Moneyfacts.co.uk statistics.
This is likely to be good news for first-time buyers itching to get onto the property ladder, according to Mr Holmes.
"Ultimately, house prices can only accelerate because the cheap and readily available credit has gone," he commented, adding that over the next two years, property prices could come down by about a fifth.
"I think first-time buyers are going to benefit hugely," Mr Holmes added.
In addition to lower prices in the general housing market, house builders who have over-developed properties are also likely to target the first-time buyer sector of the market, the Firstrung spokesperson suggested.
He said: "[Developers] now have no customers and so the only people they can possibly look for are first-time buyers."
