Rise in successful 1st-time buyer mortgage completions

There's good news for first-time buyers according to the latest Mortgage Market Tracker. Almost three-quarters of those buying with a mortgage saw their application through to completion, while almost nine in 10 got a mortgage offer.

The figures from the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA) revealed that first-time buyer access to mortgages is improving more than any other lending stream.

The IMLA is the body that represents UK mortgage lenders who generate business through professional financial intermediaries such as financial advisors.

Its figures from the last quarter of 2017 revealed that 74 percent of first-time buyers who applied for a mortgage through a third party completed that mortgage through to purchase, up from 53 percent a year earlier.

Almost up were the number of first-time buyers who secured a mortgage offer, at 88 percent in the last quarter of 2017, up from 73 percent in the same quarter of 2016. Across the year as a whole, 87 percent of first-time buyer applications resulted in an offer with 81 percent those going on to complete, meaning 71 percent of first-time buyers got a mortgage in 2017, compared with 50 percent in 2016.

The IMLA quarterly report tracked first-time buyers' progress from an initial expression of interest through an intermediary - known as a "decision in principle" - to mortgage offer and completion.

According to figures from UK Finance, the trade body for mortgage lenders, first-time buyer numbers in 2017 were at a 10-year high.

Kate Davies, executive director of IMLA, said: "The mortgage marked has proved itself to be resilient over the last year, and intermediaries have continued to play a vital role in joining the dots between lender supply and consumer demand. In particular, first-time time buyers have benefited from widely available and competitively priced deals, even before the extra confidence boost of the Stamp Duty exemption.

“Mortgage lenders can play their part in supporting access for first-time buyers, and our figures show they are clearly doing so. Our improving success in satisfying the finance needs of first-time buyers throws the spotlight onto policy-makers to ensure that pressures on the availability and affordability of housing in the UK do not put young households off applying in the first place.”