First time buyers blindsided by surprise housing costs
Mon, 03 Aug 2015
Despite saving for an average of four years to get £12,000 for a deposit, many prospective first time homeowners are being left with their dreams out of reach because of the extra expenses that come with buying a home.
On average, it was found that these homeowners who have thriftily saved up £12,000 for a deposit are still £6,481 out of reach of their matching the bills that they will need to pay.
This money adds up in terms of legal fees, stamp duty land tax, and other costs which people aren't aware of.
These figures were collected from a poll of 2,000 homeowners.
In the media and across the housing market, the big thing that people are told to save up for is the deposit, and once they finally have, the extra fees can blindside them.
This extra cash means that people are having to wait a further two years and eight months before being able to handle the extra costs, by which time any particular home they had their eye on will have been sold off.
"Scraping together the cash for the deposit alone can be a mammoth task, but that's just the first hurdle," said Aviva's marketing director, Heather Smith.
Furthermore, extra costs can come from any repairs or redecoration that need doing to the house, that people may not have spotted the need for before moving in.
This indicates that there is a lot more to becoming a first time buyer than most people realise, and these are all things which the Help to Buy scheme (HtB) doesn't affect. Although the biggest single price to pay is the deposit, which HtB does combat, the rest of the costs add up, and this could indicate why the scheme hasn't solved all first time buyer issues.
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