First time buyers accounted for around half of all home purchases in 2020, despite rising house prices and closure of the housing market during the first lockdown, according to research from Halifax.
With the market largely grinding to a halt during spring, the overall number of buyers in 2020 was down by over 46,000 (13%) compared to 2019.
However, the data from Halifax shows that first-time buyer transactions bounced back strongly in the second half of the year, rising by 52% from 121,050 in H1 to 183,607 in H2 once the market reopened.
In total, the number of first-time buyers as a proportion of all homes purchased with a mortgage remained stable last year at 50% (vs. 51% in 2019 and 50% in 2018).
The average price paid by a first-time buyer in the UK last year was £256,057, up by 10% from a year earlier (£233,118). London saw the biggest monetary increase in the average price paid by first-time buyers over the last 12 months, up by £33,486 (7%) from £455,611 to £489,098.
