A study by property website Rightmove has found Bradford to be the cheapest city for first-time buyers
The average asking price for a typical first-time buyer-type property in Bradford is £104,643 with the average monthly mortgage payment now £521 per month.
The data analysed the average monthly mortgage payment of a typical first-time buyer-type property (2 bedrooms and fewer) and the equivalent monthly rent in cities across Great Britain. The data assumes first-time buyers are taking out a five-year fixed, 90% Loan-to-Value (LTV) mortgage at the best-buy rate of 4.45%, spread over 25 years.
Sharaz Dutt, Bradford Mortgage Company, spoke to Asian Standard and explained the reasons for Bradford being the cheapest in the UK: “One of the reasons why the properties in Bradford are cheaper is investments in the city itself.For example, if you compare Bradford to neighbours – Leeds, it attracts a lot of investments compared to Bradford and that pushes up the house prices. There aren’t that many investments here in Bradford compared to Leeds, so this causes the prices to come down”
As per data presented by the Office of National Statistics, Leeds mortgages hover around £1,267 when it comes to the average monthly average mortgage for a semi-detached property for a term of 25 years.
Speaking on the impact of potential investments, on Bradford becoming the City of Culture 2025, Mr Dutt said “I think, we should be using the opportunity to attract more investments and at the same time we should be able to maintain it. If we are able to maintain the same, then yes, the housing prices will also be expected to shoot up.”
In Bradford, it is cheaper to buy a house rather than rent it, as data from Rightmove properties suggests that an average monthly mortgage for a property with two or fewer bedrooms stands at £521 while the monthly rental for the same stands at £623
Explaining this phenomenon, Mr Dutt said: “People have been renting for a while and since the rent is so expensive, they are not able to save up on their deposits, needed for a new property”
When asked if this phenomenon will continue, given the expected rise in interest rates, he said: “Yes, it (a rise in interest rates) will affect everyone, because the people who own properties, will have to cover their mortgage as well, and this will potentially lead to an increase in rent.”
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.”
