House market 'delays family plans'

11/03/13

By Steven Birch

Many homeowners are having to delay plans to start a family because of the difficult conditions in the housing market, research has shown.

Property search website Rightmove revealed that around one in 14 people are in this predicament, despite them already taking the important step of getting on to the property ladder for the first time.

Around 7 per cent of "second steppers" are putting plans for children on hold because of fears that their current home is too small to raise children.

This problem was highlighted by around 40% of those looking to buy their second home that were questioned for the study.

Rightmove revealed that the average age of those buying their second properties in the current climate is 41.

Just over one in ten (11 per cent) second steppers are prepared to sell their home for less than they originally paid for it to move on, which emphasises how desperate some are to get a new home.

Slightly more than a quarter (29 per cent) of those who are set to buy a home this year will be second steppers, according to the research, which is three per cent higher than results from a similar study in the previous quarter.

Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove, labelled second steppers as the forgotten "ugly ducklings" of the housing market.

He explained how many of them are trapped in negative equity after buying their home when the market was at its peak.

Mr Shipside said that since the credit crunch more than five years ago many homeowners have had to shelve family plans and home-moving aspirations.

"Typical first-time buyer properties such as flats and smaller houses serve a purpose in getting a foot on the housing ladder, but don't tend to be suitable family homes in the long-term," he added.

Since the Government's Funding for Lending scheme sparked a mortgage price war when it was launched last August there have been contrasting reports about its benefits for second steppers.

Lenders and estate agents have reported an upturn in the market's fortunes, but a separate Lloyds TSB study revealed that most (57 per cent) second steppers do not believe it has has a significant impact.

An overwhelming majority of 86 per cent want more help from their mortgage lender.

The study, which questioned around 20,000 people hoping to move in 2013, also revealed that six out of 10 UK regions are "blackspots" for second steppers.

Yorkshire, the South West, East Anglia, East Midlands, Wales, Scotland are labelled like this because their target market of potential first-time buyers is less than 20 per cent.

The only region that has "healthy" first-time buyer market of more than 40 per cent is London.

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