Second steppers relying on family and friends for £25,000 to help move up the property ladder
A THIRD of second steppers rely on borrowing more than £25,000 from family and friends to help them move house.
The new stats by Lloyds Bank also show that nearly three-fifths of the homeowners looking to move to their second home can't do it without the financial support.
These "second steppers" are generally couples and young families who are looking to swap their first-time buyer homes for ones with more space or in a different area.
The mortgage lender surveyed 505 first-time buyers who were looking to move on to onto their next property.
More than a third of homeowners (33 per cent up from 27 per cent last year) said that they need the financial support from their mum and dad, grandparents or friends.
This is partly due to rising house prices, where the average home now costs £220,962.
'Build an extension instead of moving house'
AFTER buying her three-bedroom, mid terrace home in Hull ten years ago, Kirsty Holden, now a mum of two, felt the family was out growing the property.
"It was the biggest we could afford at the time and we bought this as our forever home with having children in mind," said Kirsty.
But once the kids came along, the couple realised how much more space they needed, but were shocked at the high cost of moving.
"With the cost of advertising our home to sell, the moving and legal fees, the land registry searches on a new property and everything else that too comes with a buying a house, we just didn’t see how we could do it," she said.
"On top of that, just to afford a bigger home we would have been forced to buy something that needed renovating."
Kirsty, who blogs at , said that she feels that hardworking families being priced out of moving to their next home.
The couple chose to build an extension instead.
"Our extension cost us with a new kitchen and decorating around £20,000," she said.
"Our monthly mortgage payments are only £60 more per month than they used to be, I hate to think about how much more we would be paying had we opted to move."
As well as using equity from their current property (62 per cent) and personal savings (39 per cent), at least one in five second-steppers will turn to family in order to raise the deposit for their next move.
The report also found that a quarter of second steppers put the inability to move down to the lack of affordability housing, another quarter said it was because they hadn't found the right property.
It's not all doom and gloom because two out of five interviewees felt that the housing market had improved.
But the cost of stamp duty and a stagnant property market is still standing in the way of homeowners making their way on to the next rung of the property ladder.
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Today's typical second steppers bought their first property in 2014, when the average price of a first-time home was £167,137, according to Lloyds Banking Group.
Based on the latest house price figures, selling their home for today's average first-time buyer house price of £211,296 would leave them with an extra £53,825 to put towards their next home, up from £68,629 four years ago.
Unfortunately, the price gap for a bigger home is much larger, at £135,985 for a detached property.
Those who have purchased properties using Help to Buy in the past five-years may also find that it takes longer to get the funds for their next home.
Mortgage brokers have warned that a lack of choice when it comes to remortgage for Help to Buy borrowers could leave them stuck on expensive standard variable deals.
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