Buyers attracted to suburbs

Published: February 15, 2008

The UK's suburban towns are attracting more people with first-time buyer mortgages.

That is according to Savills, which claimed that more and more first-time buyers (FTBs) are interested in living outside of London.

Lucian Cook from the firm pointed out that people are willing to commute for slightly longer if it means saving a few thousand pounds when buying a house.

In addition, the director of residential research revealed that many people are now attracted to way of life in some suburbs.

"We are definitely seeing an increase in commuting levels and we are seeing the greatest increase at the edge of the commuter limits. Our key stat is that for every extra minute you have to travel, that knocks £1,000 off of the average house price," commented Mr Cook.

"It is £1,000 cheaper but you have to travel for an extra minute, effectively. People are increasingly looking at that kind of trade-off.

"You have the really sexy commuter areas where people are going to move to for quality of life. That would be your traditional commuter areas, the likes of Sussex and county and partly Surrey," he added.

The Financial Times House Price Index recently revealed that annual house price inflation in London in January was 14.5 per cent.