Over recent weeks estate agents and surveyors have been stating that the markets could be easing and that the level of interest in property purchasing has increased as a result of rock bottom interest rates and falling house prices.

Some industry officials have indicated that there could be a turnaround in the housing sector, with more people now willing to purchase a property because of the historically low rates.

However, officials are warning that whilst some reports may indicate that the housing market is set to improve there is still little respite for first time buyers, many of whom are still struggling to get onto the property ladder.

Whilst lenders have now launched some mortgage with very competitive rates of interest given the low base rate, these are only being made available to those with a large deposit such as 40 percent to put down, leaving first time buyers still struggling to get finance and buy a property.

One woman explained that she decided to carry on renting because she was unable to get an affordable mortgage deal for buy a property, and could not afford the deposit levels that lenders were asking for. She said it worked out cheaper to just keep renting for now because of the cost of getting a mortgage and the restricted access to affordable mortgages for first time buyers.

She said: “It was proving very difficult to secure the finance and find anything suitable. Our landlord offered to redecorate our bedroom and make improvements in time for the baby’s arrival. There was no other option but to stay put.”

It is likely that first time buyers will continue to struggle for the foreseeable future when it comes to getting an affordable mortgage, and even those that are lucky enough to find mortgages with competitive interest rates will find that they need to put down a large deposit of tens of thousands of pounds in most cases, which is impossible for most first time buyers as they have no previous property from which to take equity.

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