At Austin Property Services, we pay attention to local and national matters. We want you to receive the best standard of service and guidance in the property market. If you are a first-time buyer in Weymouth, Bournemouth or the surrounding areas, and you want help buying a home, we are here to assist you.

We take immense pride in connecting buyers and vendors, and we’ll ensure you make an informed decision.

Key findings from the Nationwide study include:

• A 20% deposit is higher than the average salary across the country

• First-time buyers in London would need to save for 16 years

• In Scotland and the North-East of England, it would take first-time buyers six years to save their deposit

• A lot of first-time buyers turn to family members and friends for financial help

Will small deposit mortgage guarantee change this process for first-time buyers?

If your ability to buy a home has been boosted by the small deposit mortgage guarantee, we can help.

As of late March 2021, Rightmove says the following about the Bournemouth housing market; “Properties in Bournemouth had an overall average price of £313,550 over the last year.

The majority of sales in Bournemouth during the last year were flats, selling for an average price of £214,374. Detached properties sold for an average of £432,779, with semi-detached properties fetching £302,119.”

The average price of property in Bournemouth falls under the £600,000 threshold for the small deposit mortgage guarantee. This is positive news. You will also see the average price of flats in Bournemouth is beneath the nil rate of £250,000 which is in place until the end of September 2021. If you are looking to buy your first property in or around Bournemouth, this might be the ideal time to make a move.

Mortgage and property experts see positives in moving soon

Andrew Harvey, chief economist at Nationwide, said: “We have seen a significant widening in the gap between the least affordable and most affordable regions. London has been the least affordable region for most of the past 40 years - the house price to earnings ratio in the capital reached a record high in 2016 of 10.2 and remained elevated at 9.2 at the end of 2020. Scotland currently has the lowest house price to earnings ratio at 3.2, closely followed by the North at 3.3. Looking over the longer term, Northern England and Scotland have historically seen lower house price to earnings ratios than Southern England, Wales and Northern Ireland.”

Andrew Asaam, mortgages director at Halifax, said: “We know that lockdown restrictions have made it more practically challenging for those buying and selling, but the stamp duty holiday has helped drive record levels of mortgage approvals as those held back by lockdown race to make savings. Raising a deposit is still the biggest struggle for those looking to take their first step on to the property ladder. We know that first-time buyers will benefit from steps that make a deposit more attainable and we’re committed to lending £10 billion to help people buy their first home this year.”

Zoopla’s head of research, Gráinne Gilmor spoke about first-time buyers returning to the market. Gráinne said; “Our data suggests that first-time buyers are returning to the housing market. The level of interest from people looking to step onto the housing ladder was up 5% in the first six weeks of this year compared with the last three months of 2020. We’ve also seen a 18% increase in the number of sales agreed on homes worth between £100,000 and £250,000, a price band typically associated with first-time buyers, in the first seven weeks of this year.”

We know many people have questions and queries right now, and we are here to help as best we can. Please get in touch with Austin Property Services if there is anything, we can assist you with. You can call us on 01305 858470 or you can email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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