A report from UK lender Abbey has shown that half of prospective second-time buyers feel they are unable to afford the mortgage on their next home and are subsequently staying put.
The study shows that first-time buyers are not the only group affected by the rise in UK house prices and a lull in the number of people moving up the housing ladder may slow the market down. Abbey said that 42% of those looking to move on would consider extending their existing property instead.
Paula Ickinger, Abbey mortgages and loans product executive, said: If these homeowners do decide to stay put and extend, this could create a bottleneck in the housing market for both new and existing property owners.
Generally speaking, people are getting on the property ladder later in life than they were ten or 20 years ago, and clearly house price inflation is an issue. Wage increases have not kept pace and therefore this has had a significant impact on existing homeowners’ ability to move up to a bigger property.