Cost Of Moving Up Property Ladder 'Rises £50,000 In Five Years'

Home movers paid more than £50,000 extra on average in 2015 to take their next step on the property ladder than they would have done five years ago, a report has found.

The average price paid for a home in the first six months of the year by someone who was already on the property ladder and moving to their next property was £261,524, according to the Lloyds Bank Homemovers Review.

This was 25%, or £52,870, more than the typical home mover paid in 2010, when the home they were moving into had a price tag of £208,654.

London home movers face paying 45%, or £153,535, more for a property than they would have done just five years ago, with homes there now costing £492,882 on average.

In Wales, home movers are paying 15% more for a property than five years ago, and in Scotland the increase is 17%.

Northern Ireland, where house prices still have some way to go to recover to their pre-financial crisis levels, is the only region of the UK where a home mover would pay less for a property than they would have done five years ago, with a 7% fall.

The average deposit put down by a home mover in 2015 was £87,954, which is 8%, or £6,405, more than in 2014.

The typical deposit size equates to just over one third (34%) of the average £261,524 price tag for a home.

Across the UK, an estimated 155,000 existing home owners moved to another property in the first six months of 2015, which is nearly one-third (32%) more than in the depths of the housing market slump in 2009, but 9% fewer than the number moving in the first six months of 2014.

The number of home movers in the first half of this year was also less than half the 327,600 home movers in the first six months of 2007.

A shortage of suitable properties on the market for people to move into has been cited by experts as a factor putting some people off moving house as well as pushing up prices for those who do move, as buyers have less choice.

Andrew Mason, Lloyds Bank mortgages director, said: Whilst the number of home movers has risen significantly since 2009, it remains well below previous levels and has recovered less strongly than first-time buyer numbers.

This is likely to partly reflect the high costs associated with moving home, as well as highlighting the difficulties that home owners can face in finding somewhere suitable to move to due to the shortage of properties available for sale.''

The report is based on house price data from Lloyds Banking Group brand Halifax, as well as figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders, the Office for National Statistics and the Bank of England.