Average age of first time buyer climbs to 34

The average age of a first-time buyer in England has climbed to 34, with new research showing the growing difficulty of getting on the housing ladder.

Skipton Group's annual home affordability index charted the increase in barriers since the mid-1990s, when the average first-time buyer was 29.

The rising average age has been driven by a collapse in the portion of first-time buyers under 25 to just 6%, having made up a quarter of those buying their first homes in the 1990s.

Skipton Group chief executive Stuart Haire said the results showed "the aspiration of homeownership has been pushed further out of reach for many younger adults, delaying independence and stability".

The average age of first time buyers has crept up over time, with government figures showing it has been above the age of 33 since 2021/2022.

The research from Skipton Group, the parent company of the Skipton Building Society, also found stark changes in the circumstances of first-time buyers.

More than half of first-time buyers now need two incomes to make a purchase, compared to just 40% in the 1990s.

First-time buyers are also having to come up with larger deposits, as well as taking on mortgage debt for longer.

More than half of first-time buyers are now signing on for 30 years or more, with the average deposit worth around a tenth more than a person's yearly salary.

First-time buyers are also drawing more heavily on the bank of mum and dad - with almost one in three deposits coming from family gifts, and almost a tenth coming from inheritance.

The largest proportion of home deposits still come from people's savings.

Least and most affordable

While some challenges are universal, the difficulty of getting on the housing ladder depends largely on where in the country a person is based.

At the end of 2025, the three most affordable areas to live in Great Britain were East Renfrewshire, East Dunbartonshire, and Aberdeenshire.

In total, nine of the 10 most affordable areas were in Scotland, with Harborough in the East Midlands the 10th.

The three least affordable areas were Hackney, Westminster, and Tower Hamlets, with all the top 10 in London.

The report did highlight positive aspects of the housing market.

The changes over recent decades mean people are now likely to purchase a "bigger, better-quality, cheaper-to-run home than at any other time this century", it said.

It also noted an increase in the number of first-time buyers purchasing houses, rather than flats.