Is now a good time to buy a home? Only 17% of Britons think so due to three major reasons

Less than one in five people think now is a good time to buy a home thanks to high mortgage payments, taxes and the challenge of saving a deposit. 

Confidence in the property market has declined, with just 17 per cent of respondents saying now is a good time to buy, a YouGov poll carried out for the Building Societies Association reveals. 

More than double this number (38 per cent) didn’t think now was a good time to buy. 

The rest said they neither agreed nor disagreed (30 per cent) or didn’t know (15 per cent) – perhaps reflecting big changes in the market in recent months and years which have left homeowners flummoxed. 

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When the industry body last commissioned the survey three months ago, 20 per cent said it was a good time to buy. 

At that time, buyers still enjoyed a discounted rate of stamp duty – but this went up on 1 April. 

Purchasers who aren’t first-time buyers now start paying stamp duty if the property costs more than £125,000, down from £250,000 previously.

On a £250,000 property purchase this will mean paying an extra £2,500.

First-time buyers formerly paid stamp duty if a home cost more than £425,000, but this has now dropped to £300,000.

Instead of paying no stamp duty on a purchase worth £425,000, they will pay £6,205.

Around one in three (30 per cent) highlighted the stamp duty tax as a barrier to buying a home in the survey, which was carried out in early April. 

This was a substantial jump from January 2025 when one in five (22 per cent) thought this was an obstacle. 

> Calculate the stamp duty YOU would pay to buy a home 

Why isn’t it a good time to buy a home? 

Unaffordable mortgage payments was the most common reason people gave, when asked why now wasn’t a good time to purchase a property. 

Mortgage rates have started to reduce following recent interest rate cuts by the Bank of England, and the expectation of more cuts to come this year. 

Last week, several lenders cut their mortgage rates to less than 4 per cent.  

However, they remain high compared to pre-2022 levels. Three years ago, the average five-year fixed mortgage charged interest of 3.01 per cent, and the average two-year fixed mortgage charged 2.86 per cent. 

Today, the average five-year fixed rate is 5.12 per cent and the average two-year fixed rate is 5.23 per cent.  

More than three in five (61 per cent) of respondents said the affordability of mortgage payments was the number one barrier to buying a new home, rising to almost two thirds (65 per cent) among would-be first-time buyers. 

Raising the upfront deposit was also highlighted as a significant obstacle for most people (59 per cent), increasing to 62 per cent for first-time buyers.

Being able to borrow a big enough mortgage was cited as an obstacle for 42 per cent of first-time buyers. 

Lenders are moving to address this, with several banks recently adjusting their mortgage affordability calculations to allow borrowers to take bigger loans.  

Job security is also starting to nudge up as an obstacle to buying a home. More than a quarter (26 per cent) said this was a barrier, according to the BSA, which is a significant increase on the proportion who said it was an issue six months ago (21 per cent).

Almost half (46 per cent) of respondents expect house prices will continue to rise in the next 12 months, with just 13 per cent thinking prices will fall.

House prices rose at their fastest rate for two years in the twelve months to February, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics.

The average UK property rose in value by £13,000 across the year, or 5.4 per cent, based on provisional estimates.

Paul Broadhead, head of mortgage and housing policy at the BSA said: ‘It’s not surprising that sentiment in the housing market has declined overall, with the recent changes to stamp duty meaning pretty much every house purchaser will now pay more. 

‘But for first-time buyers the extra stamp duty tax which they now need to pay is substantial and increases the already significant burden of raising the upfront costs required to buy a home.

‘A thriving housing market needs first-time buyers to be able to get on the property ladder. But the prospects for many of today’s would-be first-time buyers looks increasingly challenging.’

Broadhead added that the forecast cut to the Bank of England’s base rate when it meets on 8 May may ‘improve sentiment’ on the housing market. 

However, he said ‘radical changes’ were required to improve affordability in the long term.