Homeowners stepping up the property ladder, soars to highest levels since 2008

It’s called stepping up, in other words making the move to a new possibly better property. Nearly everyone’s dream is to own their own home one day, especially young people just starting out. But having achieved your first property they often find that it is the doorway to moving on and hopefully upwards. There are many reasons why you would sell and buy another property:

• Your young family requires more space.
• Your job necessitates a move
• You have found a better area (shops, countryside, schools, quieter, livelier, less expensive) or can now afford more.
• Time to downsize.

Whatever the reason, the number of people moving to a new home has soared since the financial crisis of 2008. Second-stepper homes in many parts of England are still affordable especially if you are leaving behind a big city or the south east. Just in the last six months, around 174,700 homeowners moved home, this is a 9 % increase on last year’s figures

Andrew Mason, Lloyds Bank mortgage product director, has pointed out that higher house prices have allowed people to put more into their buying pot when searching for their next property. Although wage growth has not kept pace with rising house prices, the lump sum gained by selling your property especially if you have a low, or no mortgage payments, means you are able to invest in something you are really looking for, rather than having to buy for the sake of it.

There have been 12% more buyers at the starter end of the property ladder during the first half of this year than the previous year, meaning some second steppers might have found it easier to sell their initial starter home, as there are more potential buyers searching. 

Recently growth may have eased, as a result of stamp duty changes and the result of Brexit. But during the last 12 months, the average price paid for a home by someone stepping up has increased by 9 %, basically by £24,056 to £285,606. 
Housing affordability for those moving up now requires 6.5 times earnings which compared with 7.3 in 2011; this seems to indicate that a move is more affordable now. Although it is rather more difficult in the London area at present, were the figures imply staying put.

In the South East, a stepper needs to find 9.4 times their wages; this is up from 8.7 in 2011. However, in Northern Ireland it is only 4.9 times someone’s wage, down from 6.2 in 2011. Ireland puts down the lowest deposits on average. However, home movers in London put the largest deposit towards the next home, around £192,133. Scotland and Wales show similar levels of decrease to Ireland in the wage/mortgage balance.