First-time buyers enduring long journeys

First-time buyers are being forced to live further away from their ideal destinations because of the price of properties in and around city centres, Abbey has said.

The lender's research has found that new buyers are prepared to travel for a maximum of 43 minutes to their workplace, even though the average journey time for a typical Briton is some 45 minutes.

Nonetheless, in their desire to secure their ideal property, some 15 per cent of prospective homeowners said they would accept a journey of an hour, with seven per cent prepared to travel for 90 minutes.

"The current level of prices inside Britain's major towns and cities mean more and more first time buyers are finding that they have to buy further than they'd like from their workplace," commented Abbey director of mortgages Sue Hayes.

"Even so, our research shows that many first-time buyers are still not fully aware of how far they might have to commute each day in order to get onto the housing ladder," Ms Hayes added.

Last month the TUC called for more to be done to end the long commutes endured by many first-time buyers.


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