The dream of owning property starts early in the lives of most people. Buying a flat is the official declaration of independence and the start of living a life paying bills and going to a job each day. Last year a wave of first time buying took place which rivaled that of the year 2007. In that year, a total of 359,900 first timers purchased property. Last year a total of 359,000 residents made purchases of property for the first time, according to Halifax.

First time buyers are constantly facing challenges and today the group may face more barriers to success than at any other time. It is a group which has not typically been in a job for very long, has not been purchasing food for themselves for a long time, or seen how quick a change in petrol costs can start affecting them immediately.

There are affordable regions of the country for first timers and those regions have therefore become more popular areas for first timers to purchase property. Copeland in Cumbria was found to be most affordable by Halifax. London still remains out of reach for most first timers and that trend is expected to continue.

Government programmes such as Help to Buy have assisted almost 450,000 first timers since the year 2010. Low mortgage interest rates have also significantly improved the buying power of the group since interest rate plays such an important role in affordability of property.

First time buyers are an important group of the UK housing market. The group increased its purchasing in 2017 year on year by more than 5%.