Five Years To Save?

First-time buyers need at least five years to save for a deposit on a new home as house price rises far outstrip earnings, according to a report by the nation's largest mortgage lender. Halifax, part of the HBOS banking group, said on Saturday that compared with three years needed to get the deposit together five years ago and contrasted markedly with just two years a decade ago. As house price rises have outstripped earnings growth, a rising number of Britons have been kept off the property ladder, causing a drop in the number of first-time buyers, a traditional driver of the British housing market.