THE proportion of first-time buyers snapping up homes has overtaken the number of existing home-owners moving house for the first time since 1995, new analysis has found.
Across the UK there were 170,000 home-movers in the first half of 2018 compared with 175,500 first-time buyers, according to the Lloyds Bank Homemover Review, which only looked at properties bought with a mortgage.
It was the first six-month period when the proportion of first-time buyers had been higher than home-movers since the first half of 1995.
Moving costs, a lack of suitable properties and potential interest rate rises may be weighing on home-owners' minds when deciding whether or not to move, the report suggested.
Over the past five years, the average price paid by home-movers for a property has surged by more than a third (35 per cent) or £77,457 - from £219,479 in 2013 to a record high of £296,936 in 2018 Lloyds said.
In Northern Ireland, the average price a home-mover pays has increased by 31 per cent since 2013 to £170,031, while in East Anglia the price has ballooned by 46 per cent in that time - the highest rate of growth Lloyds found across the UK.
Andrew Mason, Lloyds Bank mortgage products director, said: "Despite continuing low mortgage rates, the home-mover market has stabilised with little movement in the first half of this year to leave first-time buyers now driving housing activity.
"This may be in part due to the Help to Buy scheme enabling first-time buyers to purchase a new property, combined with the low availability of the 'right type' of homes for those looking to move up the housing ladder.
"The costs of moving house and potential further interest rate rises may also be weighing on potential home-buyers' minds."
The report is based on estimates from Lloyds, using its own housing statistics database as well as data from official sources.
