Over the course of the past few months, there has been a steady improvement in the number of house sales and homeowner loans being approved, as potential homeowners and borrowers are cautiously re entering the market, with first time buyers making up a high proportion of the overall loan approvals.

According to a recent survey, conducted by the property development company Green Shoots, more than three quarters of individuals currently believe that now is probably the best time ever for first time buyers to get their feet onto the rungs of the housing market ladder, whilst property prices remain relatively cheap and low interest rates on homeowner loans and mortgages create the opportunity for a reasonably cheap loan.

The survey, which was carried out amongst 2,000 people, found that the biggest perceived problem for first time buyers still remained that of raising a suitable amount of deposit to meet lenders currently low loan to value criteria, closely followed by the ability to obtain the funding they required through a mortgage or homeowner loan. Due to significant falls in the average price of a house over the course of the past eighteen months, only 15 per cent thought that house prices were still too high for first time buyers to be able to afford.

John Hitchcox of Green Shoots said “Almost 50 per cent of respondents thought that first time buyers are key to the market recovery. Crucially, this research confirms that they are at last seeing value in the property market and largely believe that the biggest price falls have already occurred and the market has bottomed. The market decline over the last year and a half has given many first time buyers a good opportunity to save a deposit and lenders have released a flurry of new products aimed at this sector over the last few weeks with loan to values of up to 90 per cent. With interest rates still at their lowest level ever, now is the ideal time to get on the property ladder.”