Mortgage payments for new borrowers are becoming more affordable, figures have suggested.
According to research carried out by Halifax, home loan costs for such individuals in the second half of 2011 stood at their lowest level for 14 years when calculated as a proportion of disposable earnings
The investigation revealed that typical payments for the demographic, which includes both home movers and first-time buyers, came to 27 per cent of spare income when judged at the long-term average loan-to-value ratio.
It was noted that this amount stood markedly below the average of 37 per cent reported over the last 27 years, while also arriving at less than the 29 per cent recorded for the same period 12 months earlier.
Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax – which is a division of Bank of Scotland and is regulated by the Financial Services Authority – said: “The falls in house prices and cuts in mortgage rates in the last few years have resulted in a significant improvement in housing affordability for those able to raise the necessary deposit.”