Surge in small deposits caused by 2013 house market recovery
THE NUMBER of home loans with a low deposit has surged by 60 per cent over the last year, as the number of mortgage loans heads back to pre-crisis levels.
According to chartered surveyors E.surv, there were 9,038 house purchases with a deposit that is worth less than 15 per cent of the value of the property in December. In comparison, in the same month during 2012 there were only 5,661. The mortgage market overall has also grown considerably, with 78,000 loans made in December against 55,501 made a year earlier, making last month the busiest for the market in just over six years.
E.surv director Richard Sexton commented that the mortgage market had moved at an “electric rate” during the last year.
He added: “In order to keep the market accessible for everybody, house building must be ramped up, to prevent the challenge of saving for a deposit from becoming even more difficult.”