First time deposit for first time Edinburgh buyers expected to hit £58,000 by 2027

A report published by L&C Mortgages, and conducted by Opinium Research, claims that would-be home buyers in Edinburgh will need to save up a deposit of £58,204, while in Glasgow the figure will hit £32,291 before the end of the 2020s.

Meanwhile, across the UK, L&C projects that the average first-time buyer deposit could be set to rise by nearly 60 per cent over the next ten years, pushed higher by rocketing London house prices.

The figures are based on research carried out by Opinium Research, which used data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) House Price Index to work out the average purchase prices and mortgage advances given to first-time buyers in the UK’s 17 key cities over the past 20 years.

Deposits were calculated by deducting the average purchase price in each city from the average mortgage advance in that area.

Opinium forecast future house price growth based on how prices have risen over the past 20 years, and used this to calculate how much future first-time buyers would need to save as a deposit to ensure mortgage payments remain affordable.

David Hollingworth, spokesman for mortgage adviser L&C, said: “With this research predicting that the size of deposits required could rise considerably across the country, first-time buyers could be forgiven for giving up hope on owning their first home.

“It makes sense for first-time buyers to try and raise as big a deposit as possible, but that is very much easier said than done in today’s climate.”