The recent changes in Stamp Duty haven’t done much to encourage confidence in the housing market with first time buyers.

Abbey’s latest quarterly first-time buyers? report, reveals that in the last three months, the number of people who are confident about being able to buy their first home in the next year has remained at just 5 per cent. A quarter (25 per cent) feel that if they don?t get on to the property ladder soon, they?ll never be able to do it.

Three fifths (60 per cent) would consider shared ownership or a shared mortgage as a way of getting on to the property ladder. In fact, many prospective homebuyers see shared ownership and shared mortgages with friends or family as potential solutions.

A quarter (27 per cent) would think about buying a wreck in the hope that it will provide a cheaper way of securing a property, an adventurous one in five (21 per cent) would even consider building their own home and 18 per cent would consider buying abroad.

The belief is the market will fall
A quarter (26 per cent) of first-time buyers believe that house prices will come down and so are waiting for a better deal before they buy, and 13 per cent believe that interest rates will drop this year.

Barry Naisbitt, Abbey?s Chief Economist, said, “Given the recent changes to stamp duty, it?s disappointing that confidence amongst first-time buyers has shown no improvement. However, on a more encouraging note, our research also shows that they are willing to take a flexible approach to their housing finance and that, if the Bank of England did cut interest rates, this would give them a boost.”