First time buyers are increasingly shunning leasehold flats according to new research.
Data from Pepper Money, citing The Guardian newspaper, suggests 80% of leasehold flats on the market in England during 2025 failed to sell within six months.
Several contributing factors were noted, including service charges, leasehold complexity, mortgageability and differences between seller and buyer expectations.
Changing first-time buyer demographics add another dimension to this phenomenon of first time buyers becoming older.
A small flat can still provide a lower-cost route into homeownership, particularly in expensive areas, but someone buying in their mid-30s with children may have very different requirements from a single buyer in their 20s.
Pepper says: “Some therefore face a difficult trade-off: buy a smaller property sooner and move again, or continue renting and saving until they can afford a first home capable of meeting their needs for longer.”
It adds that the average UK first-time buyer is now approaching 34, compared with 29 in 2000, while almost one in three has children before buying, up from around one in four in 2020.
Pepper’s own research of over 300 locations in the UK – using local earnings, first-time buyer property prices, rental costs, estimated mortgage repayments and deposit accessibility – found that:
- 41% of areas analysed were cheaper to buy in than rent, based on estimated mortgage repayments;
- 187 locations had average first-time buyer prices below the £261,700 national average;
• • 13 of the top 20 locations for first-time buyers were in the North West or North East.
