Property slowdown 'could hit first time buyers'

Contrary to some hopes that a slowdown in the property market could result in more people being able to get onto the bottom rung of the ladder, it has been claimed that the current circumstances could be bad news for first time buyers.Lucian Cook, director of research at Savills, warned that first time buyers are unlikely to benefit immediately from a slowdown in property prices and the global credit crunch is likely to put more potential first timers off, rather than encourage them to take the plunge into the property market.He explained: "In the short term, it's unlikely to help that many first-time buyers because they're still going to be reliant on mortgage finance, and I suspect that that mortgage finance is going to be harder to come by as a result of the credit squeeze." Recent research from a number of institutions have warned that property price inflation in the UK is set to slow during 2008, while the average property price in the UK currently stands at £194,895 according to Halifax's November House Price Index.