A service provider for first-time buyers (FTBs) has claimed that it is difficult to gauge just how poor affordability is for them at present, but that it is undeniably very low. Recent figures from a high street lender indicated that the average FTB could only afford to buy a typical property in one in 25 UK towns. However, while the number of buyers getting onto the first rung of the property ladder is very low, there is a far larger but inestimable group unable to buy because they are facing house prices five or six times the size of their annual salary.