Large mortgage deposits are creating a lost generation of homebuyers.

It seems that the rise of mortgage deposits is significantly decreasing the amount of first-time buyers in the housing market. Not long ago, it wasn't a problem to get a 100% mortgage but nowadays a 10% or even a 25% deposit appears to be the minimum. While there were still 120,900 unassisted first-time buyers in 2006, this number dropped in 2009 to a mere 20,200 due to this current trend. According to Professor Steve Wilcox, one solution would be to strengthen regulations to increase the lenders confidence in their loaners, making them willing to decrease their deposits.

Karel Van Cleemput

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/blog/2010/oct/12/mortgage-deposits-first-time-buyers