Carlisle named as second cheapest city for first time buyers

Property website Rightmove looked at average asking prices for typical first-time buyer-type homes with a maximum of two bedrooms in 60 major urban locations across Britain to make the findings.

The research made several assumptions, including that first-time buyers had a 10% deposit and would be paying back their mortgage over 25 years.

Carlisle was identified as the second cheapest city to be a first-time buyer, with an average property price for first time buyers of £104,784 and monthly mortgage payments of £522.

Across Britain, a typical first-time buyer home has a record price tag of £226,399, Rightmove said.

Rightmove’s property expert Tim Bannister said: “For those who are able to save up the deposit, it’s still cheaper to pay off a mortgage as a first-time buyer in many areas than pay the equivalent in monthly rent, despite prices reaching a new record at a national level and mortgage rates rising.

“It highlights how frenetic the rental market has been for a long time now, with many areas continuing to see record rents and fierce competition between tenants for the properties available.

“It helps to explain why we’re seeing such determination from first-time buyers to continue to get onto the ladder despite the economic headwinds that they face, and why we’re seeing buyers increasingly return to cities while a bigger proportion of renters are looking to move away.”

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Figures from the Office for National Statistics show the median house in Carlisle cost £142,000 in the year to September 2022 – down from £143,995 in the year to June.

In the year to March 2022, it was £150,000.

Nationally, house prices fell for the first time since 2011 from £279,000 in September 2021 to £270,000 last year, while further ONS figures show prices have fallen further at the start of this year.

The recent fall in price follows more than a decade of steady rises after the 2008 financial crash.