CML advise first-time buyer mortgages are on the increase.

According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders figures for mortgages to first-time buyers show an increase for December 2011.

Figures show that just under 19,000 first-time deals were granted which were worth around £2.3 billion. Mortgage levels in the first-time sector had increased by around 7 per cent in mortgage volume and by about 10 per cent in mortgage value from the previous month.

Figures also reveal a rise in the number of properties purchased by first-time buyers in the stamp duty tax exempt price band. This has been attributed to a rush by first-time buyers to make a property purchase before the end of the stamp duty holiday on March 24 this year.

December was a month of little change in the property market, home buyers took out only a single per cent more loans than in November, in December there were just over 47,000 mortgages agreed.

However remortgages declined by 15 per cent from the previous month. The news was not all negative though as figure showed a 10 per cent year on year increase from the previous December .

In general the 2011 mortgage market experienced ups and downs as while re-mortgage lending showed a 17 per cent overall increase from the previous year, new house purchase mortgage lending experienced a 6 per cent drop.

The CML anticipate that the number of first-time buyers entering the property market will increase as a result of the stamp duty holiday ending in March but, with continuing Eurozone problems it is likely that figures for mortgages agreed in 2012 will not be as high as figures for 2011.