Debt hurdle for graduate FTBs
Estate Agents - 25/07/2006 16:52:00
Graduate first-time-buyers are being kept out of the estate agents by student debt.
According to debt consultancy Thomas Charles only one in ten people who have left university since 2001 are a homeowner.
Instead, 58 per cent of those questioned said they were unable to afford to buy because of their debts, which on average is between £10,000 and £20,000.
Director of Thomas Charles James Falla said: "With 60 per cent of graduates leaving university with a student loan debt legacy they are already off to a bad start.
"For many the idea of ever getting on the property ladder seems a distant prospect and for a considerable number, a quarter of our survey, it appears impossible in the foreseeable future."
The report also states that the issue of student is making it impossible for graduates to save any large amounts of money.
According to Thomas Charles, this must act as a warning to estate agents about the number of first-time-buyers in the near future, despite record mortgage lending in the first half of 2006.
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