Mortgage values triple in 10 years

The average value of mortgages taken out by first-time buyers has nearly tripled during the past 10 years.

Research from online mortgage group mform reports that the value of first time buyer mortgages has gone up by 173.6% since 1996, or around 10.7% a year.

In monetary amounts, back in 1996 people borrowed an average of just £39,811 to get on to the property ladder, but this had soared to around £120,500 by 2006, mform added.

Mform warned that if borrowing continued to increase at this rate, the average first-time buyer mortgage would be more than £200,000 by 2012.

Francis Ghiloni, marketing and business development director at mform said: “For a first-time buyer to take out a mortgage that is three times their salary today, we estimate that they would need to be earning £40,190, but by 2012, it would need to be a staggering £66,806.”