First-time buyers enjoy their strongest summer on record as sales picked up 25% in the aftermath of the general election.

There were 30,200 first-time buyer sales in August, up 27% on May.

Transaction levels held steady on July at a post-recession record and the highest total since August 2007

This makes the last three months the strongest summer in eight years, with almost 90,000 sales in total, according to the latest First-Time Buyer Tracker from Your Move and Reeds Rains. 

But rising costs may spell trouble for first-time buyers, as the average deposit has risen by 9% since May 2015

Adrian Gill, director of Your Move and Reeds Rains, said: “An end-of-summer surge in first-time buyer activity is in full swing.

“With May’s General Election a distant memory, many first-time buyers are basking in the political stability that comes with a majority Government and a fixed-term Parliament.”

Gill said that first-time buyers are also benefitting from a British economy that is beginning to roar.

“As real-term wages rise and job security is increasingly taken as a given, renters are feeling, in ever larger numbers, that they have ability to overcome cost caveats and turn their property-owning dreams into reality.”

Despite their strong summer, first-time buyers face a range of rising costs associated with purchasing property. Between August and May of this year, the average first-time buyer deposit grew by 9% to £26,741.

Deposit costs now consume 68.5% of the average first-time buyer’s income, up from 63.7% in May.

The average mortgage rate continues to fall, but an increasingly slow pace. In August, the average rate stood at 3.35%, a negligible 0.08 percentage point decrease on last month’s average rate.

Gill added: “Rising deposit costs and average house prices – while hardly a first-time buyer dream – are encouraging economic signs.

“They point to rising real-terms pay and overall consumer confidence.”