House prices for first-time buyers rose faster than for the rest of the market in November as new borrowers “scrambled” to step on to the property ladder after the launch of the Government’s mortgage guarantee scheme.
Prices paid by new buyers rose by an average of 6.4 per cent to £187,000, compared with an increase of 5.4 per cent across the market as whole, figures from the Office for National Statistics indicated. The figure, up sharply from a 5.9 per cent increase in October, came a month after the launch of Help to Buy, raising concerns that the subsidy scheme may be pushing young people deep into debt.
Richard Sexton, the director of e.surv, the chartered surveyor, claimed that prices were being forced up “artificially